Empty In Remnant
by Kanimize
Summary: Vanitas was defeated by Ventus. Yet, in the end, he did not fully perish. Instead, a small fragment of Vanitas's darkness survived and found its way to the World of Remnant to heal itself. / After weeks of receiving reports about the lack of Grimm activity in the Emerald Forest, Ozpin, as well as others, decided to investigate this anomaly.
1. Chapter 1

Empty In Remnant

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, RWBY, or any other works associated with them.

 **Yo, this is Kanimize. This right here is a xover between KH and RWBY featuring Kingdom Heart's own Vanitas. This is gonna be fun to write, I think.  
**

 **Chapter 1: Ten Years Ago**

* * *

Emerald Forest. It is a forest filled with Grimm, creatures of darkness with no souls to call their own. It is located in the kingdom of Vale in relative proximity to Beacon Academy, where future generations of Huntsman and Huntresses are trained to combat these creatures. Though the Emerald Forest was situated nearby, it's location and relative danger made it convenient as a place to test potential new students before they come to Beacon Academy itself.

However, something strange occurred. For the past few weeks, there have been no sightings of Grimm in the forest at all. Despite the numerous cameras placed within the forest, there have been no sightings of Grimm, despite the fact that the forest was supposed to be filled with them. There have been theories that are going around attempting to explain the anomaly. Each one stranger than the last. Finally, in response, the headmaster of Beacon Academy, Ozpin, ordered an investigation, sending in a team to personally investigate.

A team was sent in, named GRBY, and though each of the members started off fine, they all ended up back in the academy's medical ward in tatters the very next day. One of the member, Redd, who was only barely conscious enough to even speak told Ozpin what they had saw in the forest.

The Grimm were congregating to a location deep within the woods, far away from any cameras. They've theorized that the Grimm, who use negative emotions to track down prey, are being attracted to someone deep within the forest. When they've finally reached the location, they found an unusual sight.

Upon stumbling the source of the anomaly, they found a mysterious purple glowing orb floating in the air with a crest emblem on it that resembled the letter S. They've also found that a massive amount of Grimm had congregated to it.

Most of the team were ready to go back and report to the headmaster on what they saw but the leader of their team, Greene, held them back and ordered them to hide in a nearby bush and see if anything happened instead.

When one of the Grimm approached the orb, an individual wearing a black and white bodysuit with black mask with a strange insignia on it that vaguely resembles a heart appeared from the orb. It had a body type that resembles that a of male teenaged humanoid. Upon landing on the ground, he immediately took on a battle stance that was unrecognizable to any of them. He held a strange weapon with the same monochrome coloration as his outfit that somehow resembles a key.

Multiple types of Grimm began to rush him. The Beowolves launched themselves at the figure with their claws outwards, the King Taijitus lunge at him to take a bite, and a Nevermore began dive bombing.

Upon seeing the extremely aggressive actions being taken by the Grimm, Redd's team began moving in to help only to get told by their leader once again to wait and see.

The unknown figure took actions against the Grimm.

When the Beowolves got close to almost strike him, he immediately jumped backwards, avoiding the claw swipes, and quickly swung his weapon at their general location, unleashing a crescent wave of energy that ending them. When the Grimm that resembled a snake with two heads attacked, the monochrome figure counter attacked by swinging his weapon at the neck when they got close, instantly cutting off their heads. When a Nevermore began dive bombing him, just at the moment of impact, the mysterious figure disappeared from the ground and then reappeared on top of the giant bird like Grimm's back. The black and white clad figure then stabbed his weapon into the Grimm's back, causing the avian to shriek in response. This continued until it finally died.

This display of power and prowess amazed Redd and the rest of his team, but what had happened next astonished all of them.

Before the bodies of the creature of Grimm could disappear from existence, the orb behind the mysterious figure began to quickly absorb them. As it absorbed them, the figure's aura, colored black, began to manifest as the body of the creatures began to fade out from existence. When the deed was finished, the masked man had changed, both in appearance and disposition.

The figure's left hand was now manifesting a dark blue energy, crackling as though it was channeling electricity. And no longer was he simply reacting and responding to the Grimm's attacks. Now it was taking a proactive approach to exterminating them.

The Grimm didn't even have to time to react.

The figure began rushing at the horde of Grimm before him at a break neck pace and began felling each creature with a single hit, annihilating them instantly and absorbing their energy in the process. Despite the advantages in numbers, the Grimm were outmatched and out-powered by this mysterious monochrome man. This, combined with the Grimm's natural high aggressiveness and lacking intelligence needed to comprehend the concept of a strategic retreat, caused them all to be quickly wiped out.

It was at the very end, when the last current Grimm in the forest was slain, that the team decided to hightail it out of there. Blue, however, in the process of moving, accidentally stepped on a stick and broke it, creating a cracking sound that the team had hoped that the mysterious figure didn't hear.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. The monochrome figure had detected their presence and suddenly appeared in front of them.

What happened next? The team was brutally beaten down into unconsciousness. Why they didn't die, Redd had no idea. He and another team mate, Yellow, managed to regain consciousness and found that the unknown figure had disappeared. Not wanting to risk another encounter, the two quickly dragged their two team mates out of the woods and back to the academy. After arriving, Yellow, having exhausted herself, fell back to unconsciousness.

Ozpin, after hearing of their story, quickly made plans to go to the forest himself along with a select few.

* * *

After organizing a personal team consisting of some of the more experienced hunters and debriefing them, Ozpin, along with Glynda Goodwitch, Peter Port, and Bartholomew Oobleck, traversed through the forest during the day. While they're walking, they began to converse.

"So, Oobleck, what do you think of our chances?" asked Peter in a jolly tone.

Wielding a Blunderbuss combined with an axe, Peter Port is a huge man with a huge pride. Frequently seen wearing formal clothing, he gives the impression of a well-mannered individual, if slightly overweight. This, however, hides the fact that he is a very self-absorbed individual. Something made apparent every time he opens his mouth to boast. Though he may have his moments of humility, those moments are far and rare. Despite this, he is a well-meaning man and a competent huntsman capable of working with others.

"It's hard to say," Oobleck responded. "We have the advantage in numbers, but so did the Grimm. Together, we have far more experience than the last team that was sent in, but from what that lad said, it may not even matter."

Bartholomew Oobleck, a huntsman with green hair that doubles as an intellectual. He's well known for his eccentric behavior and sometimes hyperactive mouth. Though more of an explorer than a fighter as his attire, a stereotypical explorer garb can attest to, Oobleck nonetheless is a capable combatant. He wields a weapon that can morph between a fire-shooting melee weapon that can light things on fire with each hit and...a thermos.

"Oh, don't be like that, Oobleck," Peter said. "I'm sure that whatever is ahead of us, I'll be able to handle. After all, I have singlehandedly captured a Beowolf alive!"

"Yes, I'm sure that empty cage of yours is impressive, Peter, but could you please keep it down?" Glynda interrupted.

Glynda Goodwitch, blond with green eyes, is a blunt and critical, cool and business-like woman. Those four terms are words that best describe her. She can quite stern and judgmental of others, especially if she gets the wrong impression of someone. She wields a riding crop, along with a variety of dust, that enables her to manipulate objects that she can use as projectiles and can even affect people, depending on the type of dust used.

"I swear to you that that cage had a live Beowolf in it! I'm didn't know that Grimm could die off and disappear when in captivity, but I swear, I'm telling the truth!" Peter exclaimed.

"I'm sure you are," She said somewhat sardonically. "But please, keep it down. We're almost there. Is that right?" she directed the question to Ozpin, the leader of the group.

Ozpin, a man that is never seen without his signature green scarf and black cane. He has grey hair. Though stoic at times, he is a affable person, capable of getting along with the most volatile of people and getting them with others with little to no issue.

"Yes, of course," He responded. "That is if the coordinates are correct, however. If it is not, then I'm afraid that we may be wandering the forest for a very long time."

"Then it's a good thing I've prepared a camping set just in case." Oobleck said, bringing attention to his backpack that is filled to the brim with supplies needed to survive the outdoors.

"Yes it is," he said. "It's always a good idea to prepare just in case."

"I gotta ask something, though." Peter said. "How come we're going to destroy the thing that's been destroying the Grimm? Doesn't that seem counter-productive since we're hunters and all?"

"Don't question the headmaster, Peter," Goodwitch interjected. "I'm sure that-"

Ozpin raised his hand, indicating to Goodwitch to stop talking. Ozpin then responded to Peter's inquiry.

"While it is true that the figure has destroyed countless Grimm in this forest, that does not mean that the target is not a threat to anything but the Grimm. In fact, based on what happened to the previous team, it is fairly likely that the target will engage anyone that it detects. That is why we are going to subdue this mystery."

"Hmm, I see!" Peter exclaimed, seeing the truth in Ozpin's words.

"Plus, this area is where we hold the initiation for new students," Ozpin added. "We can't use this area to test the new cadets if all the Grimm are being killed off as they manifest."

"True."

Ozpin looked at the map displayed on his scroll. They were getting very close. In fact, if everything was correct, they should arrive in the clearing where the previous team found that mysterious floating orb in just three, two, one...

"Everyone," Ozpin said. "We're here."

The crew found the mysterious orb that was described to them by the previous team.

"So this is it," Oobleck said. "Fascinating."

As soon as those words left his mouth, the monochrome figure manifested in the air in front of them. When it landed on the ground in front of the orb, it took on a battle stance, raising it's key shaped weapon with its right arm while extending out it's left arm with it's palm's downward.

"This is definitely not a person." Oobleck spoke.

"You sure?" asked Peter. "Look at the body shape."

"People don't just manifest from orbs," Oobleck responded, transforming the thermos in his hand into a weapon.

"True." Peter said, two handing his weapon.

"What's the plan?" Glynda asked while taking out her riding crop.

"The plan, Glynda," he started to explain. "is to let Peter fight the creature head on. While he keeps the target occupied, try to take it down from afar."

"What about you, Headmaster?" Oobleck asked.

"I'll be keeping an eye on things and informing you all of any possible weaknesses this creature may have. If needed, I will intervene," he responded. He turned his head to Oobleck and Goodwitch. "Be sure to assist Peter from afar."

"Got it."

* * *

Peter rushed in, raising his blunderbuss by the barrel, and attempted to slash at the monochrome figure with the opposite end of the gun that he had modified to act as a battle axe. The figure dodged to the right, performing a quick cartwheel in the process, and quickly raised its weapon to perform an overhead slash. It was quickly interrupted by Oobleck, who used his transformed thermos to shoot fireballs at it. Not wanting to be hit, it dodged once more, this time cartwheeling to the left before being forced to create a dark barrier when Oobleck began firing even more fireballs at it. Peter joined in on the action as well.

While Peter and Oobleck kept the target busy with their combined gunfire, Glynda took out a variety of fragmented crystallized dust from her pouch. Dust is a volatile substance, prone to explode at the slightest agitation. There are many variety of dust, but the four basic is red, blue, yellow, and green. Red is fire, blue is ice, yellow is lightning, and green is wind.

She quickly picked out the red dust.

"Look out!" she shouted.

Using her semblance, telekinesis, she directed the crystallized dust at the target. Peter, having heard her warning, moved out of the way by diving to the right just before the dust made impact with the figure.

 **BOOM!**

A fiery explosion occurred, scorching the ground and the nearby trees. Smoke enveloped the area and made things hard to see. The crew was forced to wait until the smoke cleared to see if the target was destroyed.

"Did we get him?" Peter asked.

The smoke began to clear up, revealing a big ball of darkness that had enveloped both the figure and the orb, protecting both from the explosion.

"Nope." Oobleck responded.

The darkness that had protected the figure from the explosion dissipated, revealing both the figure and the orb.

"Good," Peter said. "It would be a shame if the fight ended this quickly."

He ran straight up to the figure and held his axe in a overhead motion while running. The figure didn't move from his position while Peter ran. Peter slashed downward with his weapon, hitting the figure. The figure, however, didn't seem to be fazed. It was as though it did not took damage at all, briefly confusing Peter.

"Move!/Above you!" He heard both Glynda and Oobleck shout. The target in front of him disappeared and he looked up, seeing a masked figure in the air in front of him descending on his position with its weapon held high with both hands. However, due to his late reaction, he had no chance of dodging its counterattack.

The mysterious figure descended, slamming its key shaped weapon into the ground and caused large pillars of ice to erupt from the point of impact. The ice struck Peter from below, sending him flying backwards into the air.

'This is gonna hurt,' he thought. Peter closed his eyes and braced himself for impact. As he was about to make impact with the ground, someone caught him. Peter opened his eyes to see that Ozpin was the one to break his fall.

"Are you okay?" Ozpin asked while holding Peter.

A groan could be heard emanating from Peter's mouth.

"I'll take that as a yes," he said. "Now get up and rejoin the others. I got a plan."

* * *

"Everyone, focus your attention at that orb behind the target!" Ozpin said. "Don't hold back!"

Not questioning the headmaster, everyone switched targets from the figure to the orb of darkness. Oobleck began firing fireballs once more, Peter began firing his blunderbuss, and Glynda began throwing as much crystallized dust as she can via telekinesis.

Realizing what the three hunters were about to do, the figure, which was out of position as a result of its counterattack, quickly ran in front of the orb it. It raised its left hand, trying to form a shield of darkness as quickly as it can.

However, the dust-propelled bullets was faster. The projectiles struck the figure, preventing it from erecting a barrier in time. The bullets came, one after another. The explosion that the crystallized dust caused along with the hail of bullets damaged its body even further.

"Keep firing!" Ozpin ordered. The onslaught continued until the crew exhausted most of their bullets and dust.

After they had stopped, the monochrome figure, which had shielded the orb from harm, dropped dead from the damage it had taken from the storm of bullets and dust. Its body was then absorbed by the orb of darkness.

"So, it's gone now," Oobleck said.

"Yep," Peter responded.

"What now?" Glynda said.

Ozpin looked at the orb of darkness in front of him.

"We get rid of it," he said. "If we leave it here, that thing will most likely reappear."

Knowing where Ozpin was going with this, everyone took out their weapons.

"Everyone, on my go."

He began the countdown.

"3."

Peter and Oobleck aimed their weapons.

"2."

Glynda took out her last red crystal dust.

"1."

The floating orb of darkness began to wane and drift downwards. Noticing this, Ozpin raised his right hand, signaling to the others to hold their fire.

"Hold on," he said.

As the orb got closer to the ground, the darkness that surrounded it began to disperse. When it finally touched the ground, the darkness was gone, revealing a young unconscious boy with somewhat spiky black hair.

Ozpin turned to the team that he'd assembled, confused by the sudden appearance of the boy.

"Well, everyone. You can save your bullets. I believe the situation has resolved itself."

* * *

 **The roughest part is always the beginning.**

 **Yo, this is Kanimize and I got at least two things to say.**

 **First off, updates will not be consistent as I am mostly focused on my other story, Fate/No Heart. If you like Kingdom Hearts, Fate/Zero, or just want to read about a younger Master Xehanort doing bad things to just as bad people, I suggest you read it.**

 **Secondly, the next chapters are going to take place before RWBY starts. Character development and all that.  
**

 **Also, Team GRBY exists only to get their asses handed to them. Don't expect to see them again.**

 **If you enjoy this so far and want to see more, you know what I want you to do. Follow, Favorite, Review, or all of the above.**

 **Thanks for reading!  
**


	2. Chapter 2

Empty In Remnant

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, RWBY, or any other works associated with them.

 **This story is currently more taking up more interest than my other one. What this means is that you readers get to have an additional chapter to read this month. Also on the previous chapter, at the very end, I misspoke. I meant to say establish character.  
**

Chapter 2: A Heart to Heart and Exposition Galore.

* * *

Ozpin came to check up on the young boy currently residing in the school's infirmary. In any other situation, he would have sent someone to take the boy to the closet hospital in the city, but he wanted to know why the boy was in the forest and his connection to the orb of darkness that had spawned a creature strong enough to eliminate the Grimm in the forest.

In other words, he wanted to interrogate the boy after he had woken up. But he was having trouble doing that.

When he and hunters under him discovered the young lad, they've tried waking him up. Each time, their attempts would end in failure. Worried that the boy's condition may persist, Ozpin had a professional doctor take a look at him.

In the meantime, the others would try to look for someone that may know this boy.

"How is he?" he asked the doctor.

"I'll be blunt, Headmaster," the doctor said. He wore a standard doctor's garb with glasses that go along with it. "He's not well."

The doctor began to explain.

"He appears to be in a coma. Yet...it's strange. There's no wound, no bruise, no anything on his body that would indicate that he was recently harmed. And..." the doctor trailed off.

"Doctor," Ozpin said. "What is it?"

"I hate to say it...but-" the doctor took off his glasses. "His body is failing and there's no determinable cause. Given time, he will perish. I can try to keep him alive for as long as I can, but for how long, I don't know."

They looked at the young boy sleeping on the bed. His chest is rising and lowering with each breathe. The heart rate monitor attached to him beeped in intervals that got slower and slower showing that while he is still alive, he will die if this pattern continued.

* * *

 _ **Dive to the Heart**_

In the recesses of Vanitas's Heart, there stands a pillar. In more better times, the pillar, in pristine condition, would have a picture depicting him, his weapon, and the symbol of the Unversed in the backdrop of the Keyblade Graveyard and a 'frame' with a red and black color scheme. However, due to his recent, and probably the last, battle with Ventus, his heart has been fractured terribly and is on the verge of total collapse. As a result, the pillar, which is a symbol of an individuals heart, has changed to reflect the damage that has been done.

The image which was emboldened on the pillar was gone. In its place was a simple white background. The pillar itself has been fractured to the point one could almost use the word 'shattered' to describe it.

There was one lone pillar, amidst the broken fragments, where Vanitas, in his red and black outfit, is standing. His golden eyes are blank and his face is almost expressionless. If a person were able to look at him at this moment, they would find that only a small amount of sadness could be detected.

'So...this is how it ends,' Vanitas thought. 'Defeated by that weak-...no...I lost. That makes me the weakling.' He changed his words. 'Defeated by Ventus and left to die in some random planet.'

As a being created from the darkness of another person's heart, both his body and heart were comprised of darkness. When Ventus had defeated him and destroyed the X-Blade, he should have been destroyed along with it. Yet somehow, he had barely managed to survive.

However, that survival came with a cost. As half of the X-Blade was made from his heart of pure darkness, the weapon being destroyed affected Vanitas greatly.

His ability to create Unversed was weakened to the point where even the strongest of his emotions made manifest could be considered of normal strength by others.

And while the heart will never receive the damage the body receives, whatever damage the heart receives is inflicted on the body. His heart is heavily damaged and, thanks to what has just happened to him in this strange world, his body will perish and his existence with soon come to an end. It would take a miracle for him to survive this.

And a miracle did appear.

He felt a presence coming towards him. He looked up at the darkness and saw a heart, young from the looks of it, coming towards him. It had a very strong light, reminiscent of Ventus, but with a small amount of darkness within. The heart came closer and closer until it was up in his face.

"Your heart...it's broken," the heart said.

"Yeah...I know," he responded sadly before asking a question. "Why are you here?"

"Umm..." The heart seemed unsure on how to respond. "...I came because I felt that there was a heart in pain.

'What kind of a reason is that?' he thought.

"I want to help you," the bright heart said.

"How would you even help?" he asked. "My heart is heavily damaged. I tried to fix it myself but...I failed. How would you be able fix it?"

"I could try connecting with your heart. I did it once before and it seemed to have helped the last person."

Vanitas was confused.

"How would that even work?" he asked.

"Simple. We join together temporarily and the connection should mend your heart." The heart said in a very matter of fact way.

Vanitas pondered on this before realizing a potential flaw.

"I don't think that would quite work," he said. "You see...my heart is pure darkness and your heart is mostly comprised of light."

"Ah," The heart appeared to have gotten the picture. "Then I'll just have to give you some of my darkness then," the heart said. "Simple as that!"

Pretty sure it's not that simple, but hey, whatever.

"Fine. Whatever. Do what you want." he said. "But I got to ask you something."

"Hmm?"

"Why are you doing this? What do you stand to gain from this?"

"Umm..." The heart pondered a bit for an answer. "I do this because...whenever there's a heart in need, I just have to help. I would feel sad if I don't."

Really? Was there truly a heart that kind? Even Ventus didn't show him the same kindness and his heart was pure light. Still, the answer the heart gave him was as good as any other answer.

"Oh, I know that you said your heart is pure darkness, but you wouldn't mind me sharing a little bit of light with you, right?"

As a being of darkness, he would normally be averse to such a thing. But there was something special about this heart that made it hard for him to decline its offer.

"You know what?" he looked at the heart with a slight smile on his face. "I don't think I would mind at all."

The young heart shone brightly in happiness.

"You won't regret this, I swear it!" the young heart said with a very happy tone.

The two's heart connected with each other.

* * *

Ozpin and the doctor beside him were surprised. The heart rate monitor attached to the young boy began beeping in normal intervals, showing that the boy's condition was now stable.

"What has happened?" Ozpin asked.

"I...I don't know," the doctor responded. "It's nothing short of a miracle."

The heart rate monitor began to beep slightly faster, indicating to the two that the young boy in the bed was waking up.

The boy in the bed began to stir and move. Eventually, the boy opened his eyes, revealing a pair of golden yellow orbs and his face has a blank expression on it.

Ozpin approached the young child and began asking questions.

"Young boy," he said. "I am Professor Ozpin, Headmaster of Beacon Academy. I must ask, are you okay?"

The black haired child did not respond. He merely blinked slowly at him as if he was unresponsive. This caused him to become worried.

"What is your name?" he asked, hoping that the young boy can answer. This caused the boy to scrunched up his face, perhaps trying to remember. Though maybe he would rather the boy didn't, as he noticed that the boy was getting more agitated as the longer he tried to remember. It got to the point where he began clutching his head.

"Is he well?" he asked the doctor. The man only shrugged his shoulders in response.

"If you would pardon me, headmaster, now that boy is conscious, I need to check up on him again." The doctor motioned for Ozpin to leave. "I'll give you a report once I'm done."

* * *

Some time later, in his office, he was sitting at his desk listening to the reports of Glynda, Oobleck, and Peter.

They had gone around the city and did some digging for information regarding the young mystery boy. What they found was concerning. To be more specific, what they had found that they could not find any information on the child. None whatsoever.

No families, no relatives, no connections, not even a poster or a description of the child on the missing persons list. As far as the Kingdom of Vale is concerned, the young boy that is currently in the medical ward of the school does not exist at all.

As a result, this means that the only way to know who the boy is and his connection to the floating orb of the darkness is from the mouth of the boy himself. And from what he saw of the boy the last time he saw him, Ozpin would not be surprised if the boy was still not in condition to talk.

Disappointed with the lack of information, he dismissed both Oobleck and Peter. Glynda, however, he did not as she was somewhat akin of a personal secretary for him.

 **KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK**

It would appear that the doctor has come to give his report to him.

He looked at Glynda and, getting the the hint, she opened the door revealing the doctor.

"I've come to report, headmaster." Ozpin nodded at him, signaling to him that he may speak. "I have good news and bad news," he said.

"What's the good news?" he asked.

"The good news is- the boy is no longer in any danger of dying. His body is perfectly healthy and he should be out of bed in a couple days." That was good news, indeed.

"And what's the bad news?" he really hoped it was nothing serious.

"The bad news..." he made a slight pause, as if he didn't like what he was about to say. "The bad news, headmaster, is that the boy has amnesia."

Now worried, he asked the doctor a question.

"How bad is it?" He really hoped that the boy didn't have a severe case, else he would have nothing to go on regarding to what happened in the Emerald Forest.

"He appears to have lost all his memories," he said. "When I asked for any information regarding his life before being found, I wound up triggering an unwanted reaction."

"What happened?"

"In his attempt to remember, he ended up having a headache so intense, it caused him to pass out."

"How terrible..." Glynda said quietly in the background.

Yes. How terrible.

"Do you have any idea what may caused his amnesia?" he asked.

"I believe his amnesia may have been caused by some sort of trauma. Since I did not find any injuries on his body, I can safely rule out physical trauma as a cause. As a result, that leaves mental trauma. Of course...his strange condition when you brought him in and his miraculous recovery may have had a hand in this as well, but I can't say for certain. In any case, It seems likely that he will not be remembering anything from his past for a very long time."

"I see..." Ozpin said. "Thank you very much for your time, doctor. You are dismissed." The doctor nodded, turned around and left the office.

He sighed.

"Are you alright, Headmaster?" Glynda, who appeared somewhat concerned asked.

"I appreciate your concern, Glynda," he said. "And to answer your question, yes, I am alright. It's just..." he made a short pause. "It appears that I won't be getting answers as to what happened in the forest."

The blond witch nodded as if to sympathize with him.

"What of the boy?" she asked with a tone of concern in her voice. "What will happen to him?"

Ah, yes. The boy.

"In light of the boy's amnesia and the fact that the boy was found within the Emerald Forest, which is considered part of Beacon Academy, I've decided to take responsibility for the boy."

"Wait, what?" Glynda said. "Do you mean that you're planning to adopt the boy?" she asked.

...Maybe he should have worded that better.

"I should've worded that better," he mumbled under his breath. He decided to properly explain so that Glynda wouldn't get the wrong idea. "That is...not exactly what I meant, Glynda. What I meant was that I was going to take the young boy to a place where he can live."

"And where would he live?" she asked.

"I plan on taking him to an orphanage," he said. "As it is likely that boy is not registered within the system, I plan on rectifying that issue."

After all, it's the least he could do.

* * *

Finding a orphanage within the capital wasn't a hard task. He's already made contact with the head of one of them and scouted out the place beforehand to confirm the place would be good for the boy. The place was called 'Orphanage of Vale.' The name was generic, yes, but from his impressions of the place so far, it appears to be a respectable and functional facility. And for him, that was good enough.

The hard part was filling out the paper work required to get the boy submitted as a citizen of Vale and the one required to get him into the orphanage. He didn't like paperwork. Fact of the matter is, no one does. But they were a necessary evil. One that could put the young black haired boy on the proper path in life.

Though right now, what's stopping him from putting him on that path is the part where it requests a name from the person in question.

Both documents, one for the orphanage and the other for the Government both require a name for the child. Now, he could just pick a random name for the boy, perhaps one that would correspond with the color of his eyes or hair and just leave it at that. However, he didn't want to do this. A name is, after all, a mark of an individual. It couldn't be done that easily. And if it was, then what will happen if the boy remembers his name? He would be unable to change it while he was young.

So he made his way back to the medical ward to ask the young boy for his name. He remembered asking for it last time, but he didn't get an answer. Perhaps now that a few days has passed, he would get an answer.

In the morning, after informing the doctor beforehand, he entered the room where boy is still confined to. The black haired boy, who was awake, noticed his presence and turned to look at him.

The boy still had a blank look on his face. How worrying. He grabbed a chair, placed it next to the bed, and sat on it.

"Child," he said. "Do you remember me?" He asked to question to see if the boy recognized him. After a few seconds, the boy nodded in response.

To Ozpin, this was a good sign. It meant the boy was capable of answering questions.

"Good, good." he said in relief, but made sure not to let that show. "That saves the trouble of introducing myself to you." After a small pause, he continued. "So, mystery boy, I want to know something," he said, intending to be blunt. "Do you remember your name?"

Ozpin was delighted to note that the boy nodded.

"Excellent," he said. "What is it?"

The boy began to speak his first words.

"Va.." the boy began coughing.

Ah. Seeing as the boy was only communicating with just nods and such He had forgotten that the boy hadn't spoken a word since he appeared. How inconsiderate of him. He quickly made his way out of the room and back to get a cup of water for the boy. After doing so, he gave the cup to the child and watched as he slowly drank the content until it was empty.

"Please, continue," Ozpin encouraged.

"M-my name..." the black haired child began to talk. "My name is...Vanitas."

"Just Vanitas?" he asked. The boy nodded.

Vanitas, huh? He found the name to be odd, especially considering the naming convention that is normally used in today's world. No last name to note, either. He found that to be strange. People usually have a first and last name. Not just one or the other. Well...except for orphans, he supposed. Perhaps this means that the boy was already without someone to begin with.

"Thank you for your time, young man." Ozpin said to the child. He decided to stop this train of thought for now. Speculation would get him nowhere at the moment. And besides, he now has a name to put on the documents.

He got up and went to his office. After the required paperwork was done, he'll send the boy off to an orphanage where hopefully he'll get adopted by a good family.

* * *

 **That ain't gonna happen, Ozpin.**

 **This is gonna be like one of those games where the tutorial is annoyingly long. If any of you ever played KH2, you know what I'm talking about. It'll take a bit, like maybe one or two chapters worth, before the plot really starts to get moving.**

 **So I got a quick question to ask: What would you prefer: A Vanitas that's a nigh unrepentant jerk ass as depicted in BBS or a Vanitas that's a jerk with a heart of gold? I already know what I want Vanitas to be in this story (and it will happen), but I am curious to know what you guys, the readers, want.**

 **If you like it so far, please Fav or Follow. If you already did so, please review. Even better: do all three.**

 **This is Kanimize. Thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

Empty In Remnant

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, RWBY, or any other works associated with them.

 **This chapter, we got a time-skip and a glimpse of Vanitas's new life. Be forewarn, however. Half is like exposition and info dump. By the way, whenever Vanitas talks after the time skip, imagine Sora's voice from KH1. Gonna bet it's gonna be weird.  
**

Chapter 3: A Lad's Life and a lot of info dump.

* * *

Ozpin looked at the orphanage as he approached it. There was a gate, a large area past it, and finally the orphanage itself. It was a fairly huge facility. It was about four stories tall and quite wide. It appears to have plenty enough room for the young child he was about to send in.

He looked behind him and saw the young child. The lad was trailing behind him as they walked from the gate to the entrance of the orphanage. When they reached the front door, he knocked, the door opened in response, and he was soon greeted by one of the orphanage's caretaker.

"Hello, Mr. Ozpin!" At the sound of the man's loud voice, the boy hid himself behind Ozpin's back. "How are you?" he asked Ozpin.

"I'm doing quite well," he responded. He moved slightly out of the way so that the boy wasn't directly behind him. "This is the boy I've told you about." Ozpin showed the man the child hiding behind his back.

"Ah, so this is the young boy who will be living with us."

"Yes," he said. "I expect that young boy will be treated well?"

"Of course," he said. "You have nothing to worry about."

Ozpin nodded at the man before looking at the young child. He went down on one knee and began to talk to the boy.

"Young man, this is where you will be living. I know that you may not like this...but this is the best chance for you to have a proper life." To be honest, Ozpin didn't know what the boy want. The child was mostly unresponsive and didn't seem to have an opinion regarding his situation. The only time he would respond was to questions regarding the boy, himself. Even then, the boy didn't know much about himself.

The black haired boy, like with most conversations, didn't respond to his words.

Ozpin stood up and looked at the caretaker.

"I'll be leaving him in your hands," he said. "Take good care of him."

Ozpin departed, leaving both the caretaker and the boy alone in a somewhat awkward silence. The caretaker, in an attempt to break the ice, asked the boy a question.

"Well, hello there young boy. What's your name?"

"..." was his silent response.

"Well, come on now, young man, don't be shy. I don't bite."

"...Vanitas," he said.

"Vanitas, huh? Just that?"

The boy nodded.

"Well Vanitas, it's nice to meet you," the man said. He reached out for Vanitas and offered his hand. "Let's go inside and get you familiar with the place."

* * *

Many years passed since Vanitas was placed into the orphanage. During that time, his personality surfaced as a direct result of interacting with others. However, this wasn't a good thing as he then began to bully both humans and faunus alike. For humans, he enjoyed picking fights with them. For the faunus inhabitants, he preferred to relentlessly tease them about their animal traits.

As with any other person, he wasn't like that in the beginning.

Several weeks after he was first introduced to the orphanage, Vanitas was quiet, obedient, and didn't start any conflicts. However, some would go far as to say the boy was too quiet. He had never really talked to anyone. He never willingly played with any of the other children as well. As a result of this behavior, the other children began to dislike the black haired boy. Soon, a congregation of children, both male and female, began to take action.

At first, it was just verbal. A tease here and a rude remark there. However, Vanitas never showed any reaction to it. It seemed as though that he had merely ignored them, causing the collection of children to become exasperated at his lack of a reaction. After seeing that their collective attempts to fluster the boy failed, their efforts to get a reaction from the black haired boy escalated.

Soon, it began to get a little physical. Whenever Vanitas just happened to pass by near them in one of the facility's many hallways, some would walk by him and forcibly bump into his shoulder. Sometimes, some of them would stick a leg out whenever he walked by and cause him to fall on the ground. However, even with the physical actions that they were taking, the boy did not really react to the actions that they took.

This caused what was supposed to be a small tease into a much more physical form of bullying.

The first time it happened, Vanitas was shoved around by the other boys. It was also the first time Vanitas began to show an actual expression besides a blank vacant stare. For an entire week, this continued to happen. Each time it occurred, it escalated. Each day, the pushing got harder and the words spewed during such times got even harsher.

The golden-eyed amnesiac found himself apprehensive of these situations and their frequent occurrence. However, he was young and thus, he did not know what to do. He didn't think of asking an adult for help and as such, no one but him and the ones instigating the bullying knew.

The bullying continued until, at the very end, Vanitas snapped. On the last day, while the black haired boy was surrounded from all sides, a boy with brown hair was roughing him up while the crowd was jeering at Vanitas. The golden eyed boy became unhinged and finally spoke for the first time ever since he was introduced to the orphanage and its inhabitants.

"Stop it," the boy quietly said.

These two words felled on deaf ears.

"Stop it," he said it again, this time with more force to it. He was punched in the face for his trouble. Then it happened.

As if on instinct, the black haired boy immediately leaped at his assaulter, tackling him down to the ground. This act was apparently so surprising that some people immediately fled the scene. Vanitas then proceeded to repeatedly introduce his fists to the brown haired kid's face. He did it again and again and again with a deranged smile on his face until he was pulled off the kid from behind by one of the care takers of the orphanage. The kids that fled the scene had gotten their attention so that they would stop Vanitas's counter-assault.

"Everyone," the caretaker, who happened to be male, said. "What the heck is going on here?" The congregation of children, who were there because of a mutual dislike for Vanitas, weren't gonna rat each other out. So instead, what they did was pinned the whole thing on Vanitas himself. They claimed that the Vanitas had suddenly just attacked the brown haired boy for no reason.

The caretaker, not being very bright, believed their words without checking both sides of the story and had taken it upon himself to hand out an appropriate punishment for Vanitas. He decided that the boy was to go without dinner for the night and while everyone was eating, Vanitas was to be forced to sit in a empty room the orphanage had dubbed 'The Time-out Room' and reflect on his actions.

That night when everyone except Vanitas was eating dinner, the boy was brought to the room and was told to reflect on what he did.

In most other people's shoes, the person undergoing this type of punishment would have most likely not reflect on what they did and would just simply wait out the punishment. However, Vanitas, stimulated from feeling emotions for the first time, actually did some reflecting.

From the very first time since he had opened his eyes, he had felt nothing. He had felt nothing when it was discovered that he had no memories of his past. He had felt nothing when the man wearing the green scarf had dropped him off in this strange place. And he still had felt nothing when he was being harassed by the other children.

However, when he was being pushed, shoved, and punched by the others- he had felt something flared up from within him. It was an odd feeling. It was strange, in fact. He didn't what emotion that was, but the sensation had made him feel nauseated. Was it fear that he had felt? If it was, then he didn't like it very much.

Then another emotion flared up from within him. Instead of making him nauseous like before, this time it had made him feel...different. More powerful, in fact. The best way he could described it was that he had felt as though something had taken control from inside him and it led him to react with violence. Anger, perhaps?

When he had retaliated and commenced a beat down on the boy who had punched him, he felt something else. Another emotion. Whereas the previous ones made him feel weak and out of control, this one was different. He had felt something lift up from inside him. A sense of elation. Was it happiness? If so, then did he take delight in harming other people?

Thinking back on it, he remembered wearing a smile on his face. If he had smiled, then he had obviously felt good about what he had done. If it felt good, then should he continued to do it? Or was it wrong to do so? After all, the care taker seemed to thought that what he had done to the boy was bad.

Then he thought back to that first emotion. Fear. Again, he didn't like it much. And the reason he even felt it in the first place was because of the others. It made his stomach churn. He didn't want that to happen ever again.

He also took note of another thing. When he had jumped on the boy and began attacking him, everyone just kinda looked on in silence, stopping their jeers in the process. When he was forced off the boy he was blindly beating into submission, he had also noticed another thing. Everyone that was involved had a strange look on their face. It was a strange and twisted expression. Their mouths were agape and their eyes were wide. Not only that, some of them were actually turning their face away from him. Such reactions. Could it have been fear? If it was, was it because he had reacted with violence that had caused them to react like this?

If so, then he knew what to do. In order to never feel weak again, Vanitas would instill fear in the hearts of the other children. He would teach them that he was not one to be bullied. Instead, he would be the bully.

For the next decade, Vanitas would become the scourge of the orphanage.

* * *

 _Nine Years Later_

It was about to be the end of school year and Vanitas couldn't wait. Summer was about to start. Just one more day and he wouldn't have to put up with anyone from middle school again! Or...at least for a few months. After that, he would have to deal with people in a high school environment, something he didn't like to do. But hey - he'll deal with that problem when he gets there. For now, his plan was to wait out the day until the last bell rang.

However, some prick who thought he was tough wanted to pick a fight with him. Sadly for the idiot, he wasn't the type of person to refuse an offer like that. After all, he did like fighting. Though some, like the teachers, would say he liked it a little too much.

So during lunch, he went to the rooftop where the fight was going to take place. When he arrived, he found not only the idiot that invited him up there, but also some other people looking to beat him up as well. Unfortunately for them, he wasn't afraid of such paltry things like being outnumbered. In fact, he welcomed it. It would only served to further humiliate them when they lose. So he charged in, fist raised, ready to wreak some havoc upon the poor fools before him.

Needless to say, he won.

However, it was somewhat of pyrrhic victory as the leader of the group soon revealed that the main goal of the group was not to beat Vanitas to a pulp, but to get him into trouble with the school authorities. Soon, school officials came, rounded up everyone, and began handing out proper punishments.

It was then he found himself in what he currently considered to be the most annoying place possible. The doctor's office. It wasn't that the place itself was annoying. Often times, it's where he got himself fixed up after after a fight or two. No, what made it annoying was the doctor stationed there.

The damn doctor fancied himself as a psychologist. As such, the man tended to ask annoying questions and constantly tried to psychoanalyzed him. And when Vanitas asked where he got his qualifications, it turns out the man had only taken a few classes in that particular field!

Sadly for him, he was being forced to sit in the office with him for the remainder of the day while playing twenty questions with a doctor that wished he was a psychologist.

So, after getting checked over for any possible injuries by one of the few nurses working in the school, he was forced to be seated across this man.

The man wore a standard doctor's outfit with no discerning features except for a lone pair of glasses. Vanitas, meanwhile, wore a red shirt with a black, somewhat baggy, short.

"Vanitas, Vanitas, Vanitas," the annoying doctor started. "How many times have you ended up in my office? Once, twice? No...three times a week for three years. And it's always for the same reason. Almost never have I seen you in this room without an injury on your face."

"Uh huh," he said, not really bothering to care. This is how it starts. First, the wannabe starts bullshitting about how much of a misbehaving miscreant he is.

"And the bullying. My goodness, Vanitas. I don't know how you've done it, but you've managed to physically harass over five people at once. This is arguably worse than time you've caused that faunus child to have a mental breakdown in front of the whole school."

Then the idiot starts putting on a accusatory tone.

"You know, you're really lucky. Most people would be expelled for this kind of behavior. Yet somehow, you're still here. Any idea why?"

"Well...I don't know, doc." Vanitas said with a smug tone, no longer wanting this conversation to be one-sided any longer. "But from what I hear, it's because I happen to have good grades."

"Yes, I've heard." The man said with force in his tone. "From what my colleagues say, you're apparently a very bright young man- which is why they won't touch you. They apparently don't want to jeopardize your 'bright' future. But you do have to admit, it's surprising to see such behavior coming from one so intellectually gifted."

"Yeah, yeah," he said. "Are you going somewhere with this or are you just telling me stuff that I already know?"

"If you must know, then yes. I am going somewhere with this," the doctor quickly said. He took out a clipboard, some papers, and a pencil. Recognizing his actions, Vanitas began to audibly groan.

'Oh, great. He's gonna ask me questions,' He sighed internally. 'This is so gonna be fun,' he sarcastically said in his head.

"Haven't we already done this before?" he asked. "I mean, come on, you already know what my response is gonna be."

"Yeah. A whole bunch of empty answers with no real meaning to them. But come on, Vanitas. It's your last day here. Why not humor me for a change?"

"Yeah, no," the black haired boy quickly responded. "I'm not interested in giving you my life story."

The doctor looked exasperated as a result of his response. He sighed before he finally spoke once more.

"Vanitas," he said. "How about I make you an offer?"

"An offer?" Vanitas questioned.

"Yes, young man. Well...more of a deal." The man began to elaborate. "See the clock?" He pointed to the side. Vanitas looked, and saw that it was just a couple hours before school ends for a couple months. The clock read twelve in the afternoon.

"Yeah," he said. "So?"

"Officially, I'm supposed to keep you in here until school ends. However, if you were to humor me and my curiosity, I would be willing to let you get out of school a little earlier than usual."

The offer grabbed Vanitas's attention. The prospect of getting out earlier did sound appealing as he had somewhere to be today. And the timing to get in was really strict. If he accepted his offers and just give him some quick answers, he wouldn't have to worry about that. However, just to be sure of the validity of his offer, Vanitas asked a question.

"Are you sure you're allowed to do that?" he asked.

The wannabe psychologist answered quickly in turn.

"It's the last day of school, Vanitas," he said. "And after today, this school won't be seeing you anymore." He threw his hands up in the air and shrugged his shoulders at the same time. "Who cares?"

The man had a point there, he had to admit.

"Alright, fine." He agreed to the offer. "But don't get the wrong idea. I'm only doing this because I have somewhere to be today."

"I can live with that," the man said. The man prepared himself to jot down Vanitas's answers. "Let's see...hmm... where is it? Ah. Here we go." He cleared his throat. "Alright, Vanitas- since you've decided to humor me, I've decided to ask you only three questions.

Vanitas groan.

"That's still three too many," he said before sighing. "Let's just get it over with already."

"Impatient, are we?" he said with a playful tone. "Alright, fine. Let's begin. Question one- what do you want out of life, Vanitas?"

"Strength."

The doctor jotted what Vanitas said down.

"Okay, on to the second question. What is the single most important thing to you?"

"Strength."

"Again?" The doctor said while simultaneously jotting stuff down on his pad.

"Yeah," Vanitas said. "Got a problem with that?"

"Hardly. I was just expecting more variation in your answers," there was a brief pause before he continued. "Perhaps you'll answer this next question differently. What is the one thing you are most afraid of?"

Vanitas's answer, like to the first two questions, was swift.

"Being weak."

"Hmm...I see. Very interesting. Would you care to elaborate on that?"

"Nope."

"I see," the man said in some disappointment. After a brief pause, the man spoke once more. "Anyway, thank you for finally answering my questions."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Are you gonna let me go now?"

"Of course. I am a man of my word. Just let me write a doctor's note and you should be good to go." He quickly jot down a note and handed it to Vanitas. "There you go."

Vanitas snatched the paper from his hand.

"Great. Hope to never see you again."

Vanitas took his stuff and left the room, out of the school, and ran towards the next stage of his life.

* * *

In the afternoon, in the shady part of the city of Vale where criminals, delinquents, and other shady sorts congregate to, there was a building. To the unsuspecting eye, this tall metal building appeared broken, derelict, and seemingly abandoned. However, this was merely a ruse. Within this seemingly lifeless building held a secret.

There, underneath this broken building, lies an underground fighting circuit.

This underground fighting circuit, UFC for short, attracted many types of people, both human and faunus, of varying backgrounds. Almost all of these people tended to be youths that have led less than stellar lives. As such, many who have came to UFC were simply there to make some quick Lien. There were two ways. The first is to gamble on the outcome of the match. The second way was to participate in the matches themselves. Though it may not have a higher payout compared to gambling- to those who frequently win their matches, it is a great source of income.

On the other end of the spectrum, however, were people who weren't quite in the UFC for the money. These people, for whatever reason, competed not for the monetary reward, but for the sake of fighting itself. To these people, the opportunity to hone their bodies through and the thrill of battle are on top of their list of priorities. The money earned from winning their matches was just a bonus on top of that.

Vanitas was one such person.

 **SMACK**

Inside a dimly light circular caged arena, surrounded by an audience crying out for blood, were two teenage boys. A tall faunus with traits reminiscent of a canine were fighting against each other and Vanitas, who was somewhat shorter. Despite this disadvantage in height, the black haired boy had just thrown a fast punch at the dog faunus's face, knocking him down to the ground.

"C'mon, doggie. Stand," Vanitas taunted the other boy while he was on the ground.

"Fuck you," the faunus boy growled at Vanitas before getting up.

'Another easy win," Vanitas sighed internally. From what he could tell so far, this match, like the ones before it, seemed like it was going to be an easy one as well. In his heart, he felt somewhat disappointed. An easy match was good and all, but the main reason he's even in the highly illegal UFC was to get stronger. He couldn't get stronger if he wasn't being challenged properly.

"I'm gonna beat you down, you little runt."

"Fight, fight, fight!" the crowd around them roared.

Feeling rather bored, he decided to humiliate the faunus in front of him. Why? Earlier, in the UFC's locker room, the faunus came up to him and declared that he was gonna wipe the floor with him and now he just called him a tiny runt. He didn't like that the dog had the guts to trash talk him so he decided to pull out all the stops. He's gonna trash him until the faunus starts bawling.

Using both of his hands, Vanitas beckoned for the dog faunus to run straight at him by extending his arms out in front of him- palms facing upwards- and motioning his fingers towards himself.

"Come, boy," he said while gesturing. The faunus, knowing the implication of both gesture and words, reacted with anger. Face red and facial features skewed by anger, the teenage faunus launched himself at Vanitas, intending to tackle him down.

Vanitas saw it coming, however, and he reacted appropriately. Just before the faunus could make impact with his body, Vanitas quickly side step to the right, avoiding the attack altogether. The faunus, who charged at him, was unable to stop himself from moving. As such, the faunus darted right past him and face planted himself straight into-

 **CRASH**

-the interior of the steel cage that surrounded them in this arena. After a very brief moment, the teenaged faunus felled to the ground on his back. Sensing an opportunity, Vanitas quickly approached his downed opponent and promptly stomped his right foot onto the boy's chest.

"Ack!" The pressure and pain caused from that action caused the boy to suddenly scream out in pain. In response, the crowd's cheering seemed to have gotten even louder.

Vanitas, before continuing, looked down and took a look at the boy. What he saw disgusted him to no end. Just a moment ago, his opponent was flying at him with anger and now...there was still a look of anger there but there was something else too. When he looked into the boy's eyes, he saw it.

Fear.

'How disgusting,' Vanitas thought. He stomped down on the boy's chest once more.

"Ack!"

"Man, oh man," Vanitas started. "What happened to all that energy you had before the match? Weren't you the one that claimed that you were gonna beat me?" Vanitas raised his foot. "Hmph, for someone who was barking so loudly, you sure have no bite." He began kicking the faunus boy with great force while he was down. His opponent was powerless to resist.

In the Underground Fighting Tournament, participants were to fight to the finish. For some people, this could mean that the match was to the death. For most people, however, it just meant until one of them passed out. The reason being is that in actual fights, one side is left standing while the other was either dead or knocked out. Following this rule, Vanitas continued to kick and kick until it was determined that the battered boy had passed out, making Vanitas the victor of the match.

* * *

After collecting the Lien he earned from winning, Vanitas made his way back to the orphanage, his 'home' if one could it that. On the way back, he was thinking about today's event. To be more specific, he was thinking about how disappointing it was.

'Tch. Another quick match,' he thought. 'I spent three hours waiting for that match and that's all I got? Just a bout that didn't even last five minutes?' He sighed internally. 'Man, talk about pathetic...oh well...at least I got something out of this.' He patted his right pocket, which was full of Lien.

Vanitas sighed again, this time audibly.

'Tomorrow's a new day. Maybe I'll be able to fight someone stronger, then.' Given the track record of the fights he's gotten so far, it seemed unlikely.

The black haired boy soon made it to back to the orphanage. Oddly enough, however, one of the care takers, a female, was standing outside the door, which was open. Upon closer inspection, his somewhat slightly pale skin paled even further.

'Oh, crap,' he thought. 'It's her again.' The lady who he was referring to had a tendency to be extremely annoying to him. She was blond with blue eyes. Despite being one of the new care takers of the orphanage this year, she took her job far more seriously than everyone else did. As such, she was opposed to shenanigans that he was always up. The bullying and the relentless teasing that he always instigated, that didn't fly with her. However, she also felt that deep within, he was actually a very decent person. Because of that feeling, she felt the urge to 'discipline' him, so to speak.

Apparently she was waiting for him because when she noticed him, the lady immediately called out for him.

"Vanitas!" The lady shouted at him. "Where have you been?!"

He immediately pulled out a bullshit answer.

"Nothing."

She didn't believe him.

"Yeah, right. You were hanging out with the wrong crowd again, weren't you?" She crossed her arms.

"Nope," he said. "I was just hanging out in the city."

"Oh yeah? Doing what?"

"Uh..." He didn't have a proper follow up for that.

"Don't you lie to me, young man." She sighed. "Anyways, I wasn't waiting for you just so I can chew you out. There's a surprise for you today, Vanitas."

'Wait. What?'

"Oh, really?" he asked. "What is it?"

"You've got a visitor today!" She said with a slightly louder inflection in her voice. Vanitas's eyes widened and he began to feel suspicious.

'Is it a cop?' he thought. Vanitas was a part of a highly illegal fighting circuits that pit minors against each other. It wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility that the person was indeed a cop or someone of that nature. Still, the lady doesn't know that.

"Why is he here?" Vanitas asked. The care taker shrugged her shoulders in response.

"I don't know. He didn't say," she explained. "But maybe if you're lucky, he'll adopt you." She smiled as she said this.

"I doubt it," he said. "Probably just someone wanting to complain about me."

"Oh, come on. Don't be like that, Vanitas. You're never going to get anywhere in life if you get all mopey." She tapped her head with the index finger from her right hand. "You got to think positive."

An unknown, male, voice rang out from behind her.

"Good advice, ma'am." A man with grey hair, a green scarf, and was wearing a odd pair of spectacles appeared from the door behind the care taker. "You would do well to follow that advice, young man." The lady turned around and said something to him.

"Oh, thank you for the praise, sir."

"Who are you?" Vanitas asked bluntly. The care taker turned to Vanitas with a somewhat disapproving look on his face.

"Vanitas," she said. "Don't be so rude. Say it nicely."

"Urgh."

"It's quite alright," the man said. "It is a reasonable question, one that I can easily answer." He cleared his throat with a cough. "Young man, my name is Ozpin. I am a huntsman as well as the Headmaster of the one of the most prestigious combat school, Beacon."

He thought that the introduction was a bit excessive, but whatever.

"Alright," Vanitas said quickly. "Why are you here?" The man smiled at his inquisitive question.

"I would tell you, young man, but I don't think the doorsteps will be a great place for holding such a conversation." The man who introduced himself as Ozpin turned to the care taker and asked her a question. "Ma'am, is there a place where the young man and I can talk in private?"

"Oh yes, there is," she said. "Both of you, come with me. I know the perfect place."

* * *

 **Yeah, I'm ending this chapter right here.  
**

 **Man, that was a lot of words. First time I've hit 5K in one chapter. What a slog.  
**

 **I got some commentary for this chapter, though, if you want to read it.**

 **First off, those three questions asked by the doc were questions from KH1. It was also a way to show what Vanitas values.**

 **Secondly, m** **aking up some stuff for the story was taxing as well. Stuff like the orphanage, UFC, and shit was somewhat difficult for me. Hopefully none of that shit broke immersion.**

 **Thirdly, as you may have noticed, there are quite a few instance of foul language. In this story, I'll probably use it consistently for the not so upstanding characters like Vanitas. Hopefully, you, the readers, won't have too much of problem for this.  
**

 **Now that is over, here's a question for this chapter: What do you guys think will happen at the very end of this story? I mean, it's a bit early for that, but-I would like to hear some predictions.**

 **And for those who are wondering-no worries, this story will definitely be completed.**

 **Thanks for reading Empty in Remnant. PEACE!**


	4. Chapter 4

Empty In Remnant

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, RWBY, or any other works associated with them.

 **In this chapter, Vanitas and Ozpin talk to each other. For those who are wondering, here are some clarification for this story, Vanitas is currently age thirteen. And for the purpose of this story, Vanitas is going to be short.**

 **By that, I mean- he's currently KH1 Sora's height, which is pretty short. When he reaches fifteen, he's going to be KH2 Sora's height, which is probably around five foot two inches. Maybe a couple inches taller. Either way, he's going to be short in comparison to the other characters. Except maybe Ruby.**

 **More commentary in the author's notes below.  
**

Chapter 4: A compelling offer.

* * *

Inside the Orphanage of Vale, there was a room. The room, which had a round table, was typically used by the staff for various discussions. What they talked about, Vanitas didn't know nor cared enough to ask. However, when it wasn't in use by the staff, it was typically treated like a normal room so other people could use it as they see fit.

Like right now for instance. Vanitas looked at the man sitting across from him. Currently, the man, Ozpin, wasn't saying a word at all. Instead, the bespectacled man was drinking from a cup of coffee that he received from the female caretaker when he asked for something hot to drink. He was taking his damn time too. The man would periodically take a sip and spend fifteen seconds each time apparently savoring the taste of it.

Meanwhile Vanitas waited in silent tension. The man came to him and had asked to speak with him alone. When someone does something like that, they were usually the ones to speak first. So Vanitas waited for the man to speak before he would respond sarcastically in turn.

However, the periodic noise that was made whenever Ozpin drank his coffee, such as swishing and gulping, and the relative silence in the room, which only served to contrast the noise created by the man, was figuratively driving Vanitas up the wall.

'Argh, is this guy for real?!' Vanitas, highly annoyed, thought. Vanitas's relatively thin patience was quickly exhausted and thus, he spoke first.

"Why are you here?" Vanitas asked, repeating his question that he had asked before at the front door.

Ozpin, hearing this, put down his cup of coffee and answered his question bluntly.

"I'm here for you."

"...What?"

"You heard me," Ozpin said. "I'm here for you. Or, to be more precise, I'm here because of what you were doing."

Vanitas eyes widened slightly at the implications of his words.

'Oh crap,' he thought. 'He knows.'

If his guess of what the man was implying accurate, the man most likely knows of his affiliation with the UFC. If that was true, then given the way the man, Ozpin, approached him, he was most likely going to try to use that information against him.

However, that was still a guess. A guess that was most likely accurate, but a guess nonetheless. So Vanitas did what any other miscreant would do in his position. Deny any accusations levied against him despite the accuracy of the accusation.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he said.

* * *

Ozpin was disappointed in Vanitas. Indeed he had expected the young boy before him to deny the implications of what he had just said. It was just disappointing to hear the young boy deny it in person.

"Now I'll ask again," the spiky black haired boy said aggressively. "Why are you here?"

Why was he here? After spending his time working tirelessly day after day, he finally had some free time to spend. What did he do with this free time? He had decided to check up on the boy that he had left on the doorsteps of the orphanage nearly a decade ago. So the day before he had finally met the boy, he visited the orphanage to see if the boy had been adopted.

Now imagine his surprise when the caretakers told him that he was still registered within the system as an orphan. When he had asked where the boy was, he was told that they didn't know where he was. The boy tended to go missing after school was over, he was told by the blond caretaker. Where he goes no one knows, and the boy refused to specified where he went after school. Intrigued by this, he decided to investigate.

* * *

 _ **Hours before**_

On the last day of the school that Vanitas attended, Ozpin hid himself near the entrance and waited for the young man to get out and make his way to wherever it is he goes to after school. Already something was remiss. The small boy, despite the fact that the normal time of dismissal was at the time of three, ran out the school entrance approximately three hours early.

Ozpin followed the boy to the one of the poorer district within the city, a place that was located in the southeast area of the city. Hardly any normal people stay in this area due to its close proximity to forests and caves which the creatures of Grimm inhabited. Though the area was fenced off and there was no current risk of an invasion as a result, hardly anyone wanted to be in an area so close to the Grimm. The only type of people that would come to this area are the downtrodden and those who engage in criminal activities.

Hopefully, Vanitas wasn't the latter.

He continued following the boy in this downtrodden area until the boy finally arrived at his destination. The boy stopped at an old derelict building and began to enter. He tailed Vanitas from behind as he went inside. From the inside, the old building looked just as derelict as it does from the outside. It was old, dusty, and full of old junk. There wasn't any signs of use so why the boy was here, he still didn't know.

The boy continued moving, using the stairs to that led straight to the basement descend himself to the lower floors. Ozpin stopped. The stairs were made of metal. It was aged, considering the way it creaked every time the black haired boy took a step downward. If he were to walk down, no matter how slowly or stealthily, while the boy was within earshot, he would be detected within moments. So for now, he waited.

He waited until the noise created by the boy was no longer audible. After a few more extra minutes of waiting, Ozpin began walking the down the stairs. When he made it all the way down, he found himself in the basement area of the building. How did he know? There were crates and boxes everywhere as far as the eye can see. The only thing that he didn't see was the young boy that he was following.

'Hmm...' he thought. 'How curious.'

He had seen this situation many times before. A person takes a path that could only lead him or her to one destination, i.e Vanitas. Another person is following, i.e him. The first person arrives at his destination and the second follows him only to lose him once he enters the room. In this specific situation, there was usually a hidden door or a passageway. Occasionally, there would be a switch that would reveal these hidden entrances.

He began to wander and looked around the room. After a quick inspection of the room, there didn't seem to be a switch located anywhere and he couldn't detect any possible hidden entrances from the walls. He looked at the floor beneath him.

Perhaps the answer lies under him.

He began reinspecting the room, this time moving the metal crates and wooden boxes around. After doing this, he eventually found one that would not budge. He noticed that the top of the crate was opened ever so slightly. Taking that as a clue of some sort, he removed the top of the crate and found a small mechanical button on the side near the top.

'Found it.'

He clicked the button.

 **SWISH**

The floor panels beneath the crate began to move. It went upwards before moving backwards, revealing a hidden stairway underneath the floor.

'How very suspicious,' he thought. 'It appears I may have stumbled upon something.' Ozpin proceeded downwards onto the dark stairway and made his way underneath the building and into the underground area. He continue onward until eventually he found his way to what appears to be the other end of figurative tunnel. He approached the second door and, seeing that it was unlocked, entered.

When Ozpin entered, there were three things that he noticed. One, the place appeared to be in use. He could easily make such a claim because of the lighting. A place that wasn't in use would not have electricity powering the lighting system. Secondly, there was a lot of people currently in the area. He could tell because of the loud cheering noise emanating from further onward. Thirdly, the place appeared to be a facility of some kind. But of what, he could not determine.

Ozpin looked around. In front of him, he saw a lady across the room standing behind what appears to be another room separated by a protective glass panel. She is a red-headed woman with eyes that happened to match. She was handling what seemed to a computer. Perhaps she was a receptionist of some sort. In any case, it didn't look like she was paying him any attention seeing as she was busily typing away on her device.

He looked to the left. He saw a hallway and a large sign that displayed where it led to. The sign said 'Audience.' He looked to the right and saw a hallway as well as another sign. This time it read 'Participants.'

Given the clues so far, he wagered that the place was some sort of theater or an area. Of course, that was just a nice way of putting it. Given the effort that went into making sure that the place was hidden away from the eyes of the public, the contents of the area may perhaps be less than pleasant. Of course, he couldn't say for sure.

Still, that wasn't why he was here in the first place. He was here for Vanitas. Where was he?

Seeing as standing around wasn't going to get him anywhere, he decided to approach the red-headed lady across the room. He approached her and tapped on the glass that separated her from the rest of the entrance room. The lady was surprised by this and flinched backwards as a result. She quickly composed herself and began talking to him.

"Hello, welcome to the Underground Fighting Circuit," she quickly said. "Would you like to make a bet? Or are you here to participate?"

'Bet? The Underground Fighting Circuit?' Ozpin thought. 'So...this is 'that' sort of place.' After realizing where his current location is, his goal was completed. He now know what the young spiky black haired boy was up to. Now he had a different one in mind. Getting him out of this life.

"Neither, I'm afraid," was his answer to the receptionist's question. "But I am here for something else. Tell me young lady, do you know who Vanitas is?"

"Umm...Black spiky hair, wears red and black, has golden yellow eyes, right?" the lady asked for clarification. Ozpin nodded. "He's a regular here in the UFC. He comes in here basically everyday. Why do you ask?"

He kept the answer vague.

"I need to see him," he said. "It's a very important matter."

"Sorry," the red-headed lady responded. "Participants aren't allowed to see other people while getting ready for a match. I know, dumb rule. But seeing as there are some people who hope to *ahem* influence the matches outcome in their favor, it's to keep the matches as fair as possible so people don't feel ripped off when they lose a bet. I hope you understand."

That put a cog in things.

"I understand," he said. "Then tell me, when would the young boy be available?"

"Um...let's see..." she began typing away on her computer. A few moments later, she stopped. "Ah, he has a match coming up in an hour. Depending on how quickly he finishes the match, he should be available in approximately one hour and five to ten minutes."

"I see...thank you for the assistance."

"No problem."

Stepping back for a bit, Ozpin began deliberating what to do. He could step back now and alert the local authorities. After they arrested everyone, he'll do an intervention and relieve the police of their custody of Vanitas. As Headmaster of Beacon Academy, he had connections to a lot of powerful figures. Relieving them of the young boy and returning him to the orphanage would be as easy as counting to three.

Or...

He looked at the left hallway, the one that marked with a sign that said 'Audience.' Perhaps he could go witness the boy in action and see what he is made of. If he was strong, he could make a good huntsman. If he was not, then he would just simply move on with the first plan. Yes, that sounded like a good course of action.

He began making his way to the audience area.

* * *

 _ **Present**_

"Young man," I'll give it to you straight. I know what you've been up to." He reached inside his right pocket and took out his scroll. He quickly went to picture folder that contained evidence of Vanitas's fighting in the match that was clearly sponsored by the UFC. He opened it and showed it to Vanitas while making sure to keep a firm grip on it. "Recognize this, young man?"

The young boy opened his mouth in shock at the contents of the phone.

"H-how did you-?!"

"You don't need to know. What you do need to know is that I've already alerted the authorities," he said calmly. "Pretty soon, they'll invade the UFC and put it down for good. Not only that, they'll seize any data they can from the place to hunt down anyone who was involved and put them behind bars. After all, an organization that promotes senseless unregulated violence and exploits the downtrodden to do so is very frowned upon in today's society."

He looked at the boy. Vanitas had a shocked expression on his face. Apparently, he was so shocked that he didn't make a single noise. However, this didn't matter to him. For the future he has planned for the boy, he needed to press the assault.

"Even if they don't happen to find anything on you, with what I have on you, I can just give the evidence of your misdeeds myself."

The boy quickly recovered from his state of stupor.

"Oh yeah?" he said rebelliously. "Won't the cops find it suspicious that you somehow have evidence on me inside the UFC?"

"Young boy, I'm the headmaster of one of the most prestigious combat school in all of Remnant. But before that, I am first and foremost a huntsman. Though my primary duty is to protect the world from the creatures of Grimm, one of the many other duties that comes with being a huntsman is to uphold the peace. Do you know what that means?"

The boy opened his mouth to respond but was prevented from talking by Ozpin who quickly cut him off before he could say anything.

"What that means, young man, is that no one would bat an eye when it is eventually revealed that a huntsman was the one that took down that organization that exploited the poor and downtrodden for entertainment. Right now, I am the one with the evidence that could put you inside juvenile detention center for a long time. As such, Vanitas, right now- I'm the only one that can help you."

"Tch." It appeared the boy was at a lost for words. It wasn't long for the reality of his situation began to sink in either. Eventually the boy, after glaring a stare that could possibly kill a person at him, asked a question.

"How can you help me?"

"In the best case scenario," he responded. "Not only do I not turn you in to the local authorities, there will hopefully be no salvageable data located within the UFC that relates to you. In the worst case scenario, they find information on you and you'll be arrested. But do not worry, I have connections in many places, young man. Getting the police to release you will not be hard task to accomplish. However, you will likely obtain a criminal record as a result which could cause future complications in your life.

"And what do you want for this help?"

Ozpin smiled.

"Vanitas, what I want from you is a plethora of things."

"It's not like I have much of a choice."

"Good. You understand your situation. I'll keep it simple then. Though there are many things I want from you, they are all simple."

"Simple, huh? Like what?" Vanitas asked.

"Well, for one thing- I want you to stop doing stuff like this ever again."

"Come again?" the boy asked in confusion.

"You heard me, young man. No one more looking for fights out in the bad part of town ever again." The boy stood up from his seat.

"What?!"

"You heard me. No more fighting. At least...not in a unregulated setting. It wouldn't do if you were to end up dead as a result of fighting the wrong person."

"No way! Why would I ever-!" Ozpin flashed his scroll at Vanitas, reminding him of the evidence that the man held against him.

The boy growled aggressively at him before shutting up and sitting down.

"Now then, onto the second item." He cleared his throat. "I want you let the caretakers at the orphanage know what you're up to at any given time. I know that you may not like them-"

"That's an understatement," the boy quickly said under his breath.

"And that they may not like you. But you're a minor and an orphan, Vanitas. Like it or not, they're the ones that are responsible for you. They're the ones that feed you, clothe you, and most importantly, the ones that provide a roof over your head whenever you sleep. The very least you can give them is a little respect."

The boy was looking away from him now. Was he ashamed? If so, then good. A little humility is never bad.

"The very last thing I want from you, Vanitas, is a little more complex. It will requires years of work to accomplish this. I do not mind if you were to fail this last task so long as you give it your very best. However, if you were to fail as a result of not giving it your very best on this last task, and trust me- I will know, then you will most certainly end up in the detention center. Do you understand me?"

"Tch. Yeah, yeah, fine. What is it?" he said, still glaring at the man.

Ozpin stared right back at Vanitas, meeting his eyes.

"What I want, young man, is for you to become a Huntsman."

* * *

 **Man. Ozpin is getting to be such a major character in this. Which is really something since I don't really know his character all that well. So if Ozpin in this fic seem a little...off, then that's the reason.  
**

 **I'm not really in the whole romance genre. I mean I don't mind reading it. But writing it? That's a whole other cup of tea for me. So if any of you readers were hoping for some romance in this story, abandon all hope for it.**

 **Lastly, there's gonna be some more chapters for the prologue of this story. About three, hopefully just two chapters, before we get to the Beacon. So if all goes well, there will be two more chapters to go. After that, we'll get to see how Vanitas 'interacts', and I use that term loosely, with the other RWBY characters. It won't be pleasant for them, I assure you. *Laughs evilly*  
**

 **Remember to Follow, Favorite, or leave a Review. If you do leave a review, tell me what you like or don't like about the story thus far.  
**

 **Thanks for reading Empty in Remnant. PEACE!**


	5. Chapter 5

Empty In Remnant

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, RWBY, or any other works associated with them.

 **This chapter, we're continuing off from before the last chapter ended. After that is a whole bunch of things meant to prepare Vanitas in his new life. Originally this was supposed to be one huge mega chapter (8-10k word count) that would detail the events of the next two years of Vanitas's life. However, I decided not to as that would've been too long. So I've split it down the middle for two chapters. So now, we have one more chapter to go before the story starts to revs up.  
**

 **Since some people are wondering, yes- Vanitas will get his keyblade back. It's an inevitable event, really. So it's more of a question of when and how he gets it back rather than a if.  
**

 **By the way, get ready to bring out Ventus's theme. Why? Just do it!  
**

Chapter 5: Ambitions, a Strange Dream, and Sadness.

* * *

"A Huntsman?" Vanitas said. In his confusion, he had temporarily lost his heat. "Like you?" he asked.

Ozpin nodded.

"Why?" he asked with a highly questioning tone. It was a good question- one he needed to be answered.

"Because young man," the man, Ozpin, began, "When I look at you, I see a boy who knows not his own capabilities." He began to elaborate. "When I saw you fight in that arena, I could tell. The way you moved, the way you fought. That ferocity and savagery you possess. It was quite evident to me, Vanitas, that you are a naturally born fighter with a talent for combat. However, with the way that you have been applying it, that talent is wasted."

"Wasted?" Vanitas said. At Ozpin's comment, he resumed glaring at the man before him.

"Yes, Vanitas. Wasted. You've been squandering your talent by fighting those who are weaker than you. Your true potential will never flourish like that. Tell me, do you think the people that you've fought in that arena, the poor and the downtrodden, were of any threat to you?"

'No, they weren't,' he thought. 'Fighting them is hardly any fun.'

Vanitas shook his head at Ozpin's question.

"No," the man continued on. "Of course not. People from such conditions rarely make good fighters. Talent like yours, Vanitas, can only flourish when in competition with peers of similar strength. You will never find it wandering out in the streets."

"Oh?" Vanitas said, his interest caught by where Ozpin was taking this conversation. "Then where can I find it?"

"Among the Hunters, of course. Many of them have been raised from from a combat background and, as a result, far outmatch the people you have fought so far." The man paused for a second before continuing. "Not only that, there are also the creatures of Grimm, Humanity's number one enemy. Do you know what they are?"

"Who hasn't?" he said. "They're big black monsters that threatened mankind once, correct?"

"That is correct. Though as of now, humanity is currently in a statement with them. As a Huntsman, it is my swore duty to maintain vigilance and to take up arms in case of an attack. If you were to become a Huntsman, you will also be able to fight these creatures."

Vanitas began to think on it.

If he were to become a Huntsman, like this man wanted, then that would mean that not only would he be able to fight strong opponents on a daily basis, he would also be able to fight the creatures of Grimm, creatures of darkness that was so strong, they were said to have almost eliminated mankind.

His body shivered in excitement at the thought. He didn't dare show his excitement, however, and maintained his aggressive look.

Meanwhile, Ozpin continued his speech.

"What I am offering you, young man, is a positive possibility of your future. I offer you the possibility of a future filled with strength and those capable of challenging it so that you can continue to strive for greater strength. And I believe that with enough training and experience, you may have the potential to be strongest Huntsman of your generation, if not of all time."

At that last comment, Vanitas sat down. He continued to stare at Ozpin however, though with less intensity than before. He began to ponder the words that came out of Ozpin's mouth. After spending some moments thinking about his words, the boy spoke.

"So...that's your angle," he said. "Hmph, alright then- since I got no choice in this anyway, fine. Tell me- how do I become a Huntsman?"

The man in front of him smiled.

"It's quite simple," he said. "There is only one way to be officially recognized as a Huntsman. You simply have to graduate from a combat school that trains future would-be hunters."

"Like Beacon Academy?"

"Exactly like Beacon Academy," Ozpin confirmed. He continued on. "However, you will find that gaining entrance to these academies to be a slightly more complex task.

"Really?" he asked. The man nodded.

"There are two methods that you can use in order to apply, Vanitas. The first is to simply go through the system." He began to elaborate. "To do this, you must enter and graduate from a combat school that specializes in training students in the fundamentals of combat, such as the nearby Signal Academy. After you graduate from a combat school such as that, it is a simple matter of applying to Beacon or to another school of equal standing, where you will be inducted as a huntsman-in-training."

Vanitas nodded to show that he understood.

"What's the second method?"

"The second method is to, simply put, apply directly to Beacon or the likes with little to no credentials. If you were to take this route, going to combat school like Signal Academy will not at all be necessary. However, since a person who takes this route is without proof of his or her skills, they would have to be tested in a variety of tests to ensure competence."

Before he had a chance to contemplate this particular option, Ozpin quickly spoke.

"This route is not one that I would recommend to you, Vanitas."

"Huh?" Vanitas said. "Why not?"

"You are strong, that is indeed true, however- in terms of both strength and knowledge, you are not at the level needed to pass the tests. After all, rather than honing your skills properly through training, you have spent the majority of your life wasting your talents in the UFC. If you were to take the tests at your current level, you will fail. This is why I want you to go through the system. When you go to a combat school to learn the fundamentals of combat, you will be trained by the school and be taught information needed for you to attain greater strength."

Vanitas turned a little red at what Ozpin was saying about him. He didn't like that the man was basically putting him down. He glared at the man but relented once when he did saw the logic in his statements.

"Hmm, alright," he said. "I'll do it your way."

The man before smiled once more.

"Excellent."

* * *

 ** _The Three Months  
_**

It had been three months since Vanitas had last seen Ozpin. With the man's guidance, the black haired boy had decided to attend Signal Academy. He had chosen the place due to its convenient location- being situated on an island close to the city of Vale. After graduating from Signal, he would then go on to Beacon.

The day after the man left, Vanitas watched the news. The UFC, the organization that he was affiliated with, was featured prominently on the news. It appeared to Vanitas that the scarf wearing man was indeed telling the truth when he said that he had inform the police of their location. He continued to watch the news, learning that, in UFC's attempt to preserve the anonymity of their clients and participants, the UFC exploded the data room, destroying all data and their back up. Upon learning this information, Vanitas smirked. He is no longer in any immediate sort of danger and the only ones who have information pertaining to his misdeeds are both him and Ozpin.

Now that he is out of the danger zone, Vanitas continued on with his life. The very first thing he did was submit an application to Signal Academy. It would later be accepted.

During the summer, the boy studied to prepare his mind for Signal. Though doing this would be redundant considering that Signal would be teaching the materials that he was already looking up, he wanted to be ahead of the curve. That way, he would have more time to train during his time at Signal. The more that he train, the stronger he would get.

He checked out various books from the local library, boringly called 'The Library of Vale,' on subjects pertaining Hunters, Grimm, and other various tomes that he thought would be useful. Admittedly, though he was quite brilliant, other than the information given to him by Ozpin about hunters, he was quite uninformed regarding these sort of information. He was aware of them to some extent, sure. That was a given their importance in society. However, as he previously did not have an interest in them before him, he didn't bothered to learn about them until now.

In his designated room within the orphanage, he took his backpack, which was full of books from the local library, and poured out the contents all over his bed.

First off, as a review of what Ozpin had told him and to see if he could gleam more information about the subject, he took a book titled _Huntsmen and Huntresses: A Guide for Aspiring Warriors_. He did a quick cursory reading of it and did a brief summary of the book.

Huntsmen and Huntresses are basically warriors who are dedicated to the pursuit of slaying the creatures of Grimm. They do this in various ways, typically involving combat with the combined usage of both dust and Aura.

So basically, nothing he didn't already know save for that one bit about aura. That was something new to him.

He looked it up. What he found made him smiled in excitement and anticipation. He was excited as it was something that could give him further strength. He held anticipation for it because, though he did not have access to it now, he knew that, if he were to continued down the path of a Huntsman, he would eventually obtain it.

Aura, according to the book, is the manifestation of one's soul. It is an energy source as well as a tool that is needed to fight at a higher level. For example, with proper use, it can allow one to move faster, hit harder, jump higher, as well as being able to manifest something akin to a force-field to defend oneself. And according to the book, there are even more possible uses for Aura.

He wanted to know how to unlock it. With the information obtained from the book, he learned that there are two ways that he could unlock his Aura. In order to unlock the use of Aura, it would require training and willpower. The book didn't tell how much was required of each nor an actual method of training. Perhaps it meant that in time, with both generic training and willpower, Aura would manifest itself naturally. It didn't really say, however. If it did, then the book was being really, really, really, vague. The other method he could use to unlock his Aura is to get someone else whose Aura is already unlocked to unlock his.

Yeah, no. He didn't want to do that particular option. He wasn't into asking for help. It's just wasn't him. And besides- he could just do the first method. Sure, the method is a little vague, but perhaps it was literal.

He would have to test that later on. Preferably soon. He really wanted to use his Aura as soon as he can.

Revisiting the book, one other thing that was also particular of note was the topic labeled 'Semblances.'

Semblances are, simply put, special abilities brought about by the use of Aura. It is the manifestation of a person's Aura and is representative of one's own innate strength. As such, each ability is unique and specific to each person.

After reading that, he briefly wondered what his own semblance would be.

Curiosity as well as a sense of impatience began to welled up within him. Now he really had to unlock his Aura as soon as he can. Though he didn't want to ask for help, if it came to it, he would be willing to swallow his pride at least once if it meant getting stronger faster. However, other than perhaps Ozpin, he didn't know anyone who could possibly unlock his Aura. So for now, he'll do what he can and try to unlock his Aura himself.

He eyed the additional books he had checked out, the ones about Grimm, the world around him, etc, and temporarily set them aside. For now, he needed to train. The sooner he could unlock his Aura, the better.

* * *

It was two months into summer vacation. Vanitas was getting frustrated. It wasn't the two months of continuous almost non-stop training that he was forcing himself through that was making him angry. That was going really well, actually. He got some good gains and was confident in his ability to answer any questions thrown at him, provided that it was based on the topic on Hunters, Grimm, weapons, and so on.

No, what was making him edgy was the two months of non-progress regarding his Aura. For two months he had set aside time from training and studying to try to unlock his Aura on his own. In his room, he would sit in a meditating position, eyes-closed, concentrating intensely in an effort to unlock his Aura. A tell-tale sign of an Aura being manifested is a small aura being manifested on a person, appearing like an colored outline. The color depends on the person channeling it.

However, there have been nothing. And it was driving him up the wall. He didn't like to admit, but it seem that this endeavor was going to be a fruitless one. It seemed that he was going to have to have someone else, perhaps somebody at Signal, unlock his Aura for him.

He frowned at that thought. The thought of getting help, even if it is for the pursuit of strength, displeases him. He wanted to be strong, on his own, with all of his effort. But with the progress he had been making so far, he might actually have to do it.

Before he decided to decide whether or not to give up on his current task and ask for help, he decided to take one last go at unlocking his Aura. Late at night he sat in his room, on his bed, with his legs crossed. He closed his eyes and focused. He maintained this posture for over an hour.

"Gah!" he screamed out before settling down. "Another bust." This was getting him angry. He really needed to hit something to express his anger. Unfortunately, at the moment there was nothing he could use to take out his anger. And he didn't particularly feel like going out of his way and look for someone to take it out on this late at night.

So for now, he just contained his emotions inside of him and went to bed. After closing his eyes, he waited for the realm of sleep to take him. The boy's consciousness began to fade and soon, the boy slept.

In the realm of sleep, the boy began to dream.

* * *

Vanitas was in a strange place. He could tell. As he looked around, he found there was nothing but a barren wasteland. There was literally nothing but badlands for miles. The only thing that he saw that wasn't brown or lifeless were the two people in the distance. One was standing in what seemed to be a combat position while the other was on a small cliff overlooking the first person.

He began moving towards them. As he did, the details of the two became clearer the closer he got.

The first person was a boy, probably close to his age. He had blond spiky hair that spiraled upward to the right as well as eyes as blue as the sky. He was wielding a strange key shaped weapon with his right hand in a reverse grip. For some odd reason, the boy had a fearful look on his face.

He didn't know why, but looking at the boy made Vanitas want to strangle him.

The second person was an elderly old man. He had an extremely tanned skin as well as eyes whose golden appearance resembled his own. He was bald and had no hair, save for his eyebrows and goatee. In short, he looked like a dastardly man with a dastardly plan.

When he looked at the man, he just could not help but feel a sort of loathing towards him as well.

'Strange,' he thought. Why was he feeling like this? Why did it feel like these two were supposed to be familiar to him somehow?

Suddenly, out of nowhere, an intense pain rang in his head, causing him to close his eyes and clutched his head in order to cope with pounding pain. It continued on for what seemed like minutes. Eventually, however, the pain eventually subsided and the boy began to open his eyes. When his eyes were fully opened, he noticed that something was amiss.

Before he had closed his eyes, he was situated to the right of the boy and to the left of the old man. When he reopened his eyes after the pain subsided, he found that he was right in front of the old man situated on the small cliff in front of him, right where that blond boy was supposed to be.

'What's going on?' he thought. He didn't get an answer to that question for soon, even more strange things happened..

The ground beneath him, barren and brown, suddenly had large dark puddles appearing all over. In just a few seconds, strange creatures crawled out of the puddles of darkness. These creatures bodies were pitch black, which only served to make their spherical glowing yellow eyes appear even brighter. These creatures had two long antennas protruding from the sides of their head which reached all the way to their backs. Their hands were clawed and their feet lacked any sort of digits.

In response to this sudden appearance, he got into a battle stance.

Yet it was strange. Despite being in position for battle, he felt something horrible. His body was shaking, his eyes were wide, and his breathing was short. Not only that, his heart was pounding like there was no tomorrow.

'Oh, no,' he thought. He had felt this something only once before. It was a horrible experience and he had swore to never let it happen again.

But here it was.

Fear.

'I'm scared,' he thought.

He couldn't handle it.

Vanitas looked at the old man in front of him. He was his only hope out of this situation. He opened his mouth to speak but, when he did, the voice that came out was not his own. Instead, it was the voice of someone else that came out.

 _"Please don't do this master!"_ A youthful voice cried out. _"I'm not strong enough!"_

'I can't win! Save me!'

He didn't want to fight those...those...things!

The creatures of darkness began closing in on him inching in closer and closer.

'I can't do it!'

It was then that the old bald man with the goatee began speaking to him.

 _" _No. It is because you are trying to hold it in,"__ He said in a grave voice. _Let_ _ _the dark impulses waken in the pit of your heart. Release them, here and now! Sharpen your fear into rage."__

'I can't! Can't you see that I can't do it?!'

Why won't the old man help him?!

 _ _"You must! If you do not let the storm within you run its course, it will wipe you from the face of the world, make no mistake! Do it. Embrace the darkness. Produce for your Master the χ-blade!_ "_

One of the shadowy creatures jumped at him. Reacting in fear, Vanitas swung the strange weapon that was in his right hand at the strange monster, hitting it in the chest. The creature was pushed back as a result. Sadly, however, this wasn't the end of it. All of the strange creatures, including the one that he had just barely fended off, leaped at him all at the same time. Unable to react in time- to either dodge or strike back, Vanitas put both his arms out in front of him in an X-shaped formation in a vain attempt to defend himself.

He was pinned down by the very first creature that he had fended off before. Then, a second one came. Then a third one. They just kept on coming. Soon, he was trapped, drowning within the sea of darkness. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't move. Seeing that the man wasn't going to save him and his own powerlessness in the face of adversary- underneath the mass of darkness that had enveloped him, Vanitas gave up all hope of being rescued.

'It's hopeless...'

He closed his eyes and his vision soon faded to black.

* * *

In the early morning, Vanitas woke up with a violent upward rise. His breath was short and rasped, he was covered in cold sweat, his heart was pounding furiously and he was extremely aware of the blood flowing through his veins. In short, he felt absolutely terrible. He quickly got out of his bed and went straight to one of the restroom to use one of the sinks. He turns the faucet to the right, letting loose a stream of water. He took some of the water and splashed it onto his face. Feeling less like hell, Vanitas made his way back to his room and, after closing the door, collapsed on his bed.

'What the hell was that?' he thought. He tried to remember the contents of what had transpired in the nightmare, but the nightmare was merely a dream, and a dream itself is fleeting. Thus by the time he got to his bed, there were only bits and pieces for him to remember. He was aware that something bad had happened in the dream and that it had caused him great distress in the process, but in the end, no matter how hard he tried to remember, almost all of it was a blur.

The one thing that he remembered for sure were the words spoken by that man, whose features he could no longer recall, and the emotions that he had felt.

 _"Let the dark impulses waken in the pit of your heart. Release them, here and now! Sharpen your fear into rage. You must! If you do not let the storm within you run its course, it will wipe you from the face of the world, make no mistake! Do it. Embrace the darkness. - - -!"_

He was sure there was something else. Just one last thing that the man had said. However, no matter what, he couldn't recall the words. Vanitas shook his head. Instead of wasting his energy trying to focus on what he couldn't remember, he would instead focus on what the man had said.

Vanitas closed his eyes and focused on the emotions he had felt from the dream. He focused on the fear that had paralyzed him, the immense sadness that he had felt that almost brought him to tears, and that sense of hopelessness that dragged him downward into the pit of despair.

"Sharpen my fear into rage...let the storm within myself run its course...embrace the darkness." He repeated these words over and over, like a mantra, as he maintained his focus.

Soon, something clicked within him. Feeling it, he opened his eyes to find that a small glowing black outline was surrounding his body.

'Is that...my Aura?' He quickly inspected his body to make sure that it was. After doing so, he concluded that, yes, it was indeed his Aura.

However, instead of feeling happy like he thought he would, he felt, oddly enough, nothing. After two months worth of attempts, he had finally done it. He finally managed to achieved the use of Aura.

So why? Why was there no feeling of accomplishment to go with finally reaching the next level of strength? Why wasn't he happy?

Irritated, one thought passed through Vanitas's mind.

'What a horrible day.'

A month soon passed.

The first red leaf that fell to the ground signified the end of summer and the start of fall.

* * *

 **Aw shit, I made myself sad.**

 **I got two things to say.  
**

 **1) If you're confused by how Vanitas can recall Ventus's experience under Master Xehanort, keep in mind that, in the beginning when Vanitas was created, he was essentially just a darker version of Ventus. Thus, he has memories regarding the trauma Ventus experienced under MX's tutelage as well as his past. After their separation, however, is a different story altogether.  
**

 **2) I'm doing a small Q and A. If you have any questions regarding the story, feel free to let them out. I'll only be able to answer questions that won't spoil anything major, however. I'm sure that most, if not all of you, will understand. I don't mind spoiling the lesser stuff however. Stuff like Vanitas's relationship with other characters or lack thereof, stuff like pairings and stuff like 'Is Vanitas going to pick on Jaune?' The answer for that last one is most likely obvious.  
**

 **Whelp, thanks for reading Empty in Remnant. If you like it, you should Fav, Follow, and or Review.**

 **PEACE OUT!**


	6. Chapter 6

Empty In Remnant

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, RWBY, or any other works associated with them.

 **Answers to questions will be at the bottom. If you don't want to see the answers to questions that may be bit of a spoiler (not big ones though) then ignore it and go straight to the A/N at the very bottom.  
**

 **In this chapter, we'll be looking at Vanitas's life at Signal for the next year. However, only the parts needed. I don't want to make a full blown arc out of this part of the story. I have no idea how many words this chapter is going to have, but I'll bet there's going to be a lot.  
**

 **Also, since I'm not going to address it within this chapter, Vanitas is now 14 at the start of this chapter. At the end of the chapter, he'll be close to 15, give or take a month or two. Feel free to imagine him with his normal voice at some point.  
**

 **After this chapter, I'll be heading back to the 3-4k words per chapter format. Making stuff this big makes me rush some stuff more than usual. Like a lot. So uh expect some lack of details in some parts.  
**

 **Oh yeah, since this is a chapter about Signal, you should expect some misinformation. And non specifics...Why the hell did I make a chapter about Signal? *Despairs*  
**

 **Btw, rule of thumb: If it takes me about a month to release a chapter, expect a huge chapter like this one.**

Chapter 6: A Year of Learning

* * *

After having obtain the use of Aura, Vanitas began using the power it provided him. It took a bit to get the most use out of it, but after a month of practice, he could definitely say with confidence that he knew how to channel it.

It was a simple case of focusing to direct the energy towards the area of the body that the user wanted to be augment. If he wanted to hit something really hard, he would direct the energy to his arms. If he wanted to run fast, he would direct the energy to legs. It was very simple.

However, other than augmenting his speed, he didn't have many opportunities to exercise this new found power. While he had at one point considered testing his strength against the other residents of the orphanage using the power of Aura, he decided against it. Not only would it be overkill, it would have likely led to a very quick trip to the local Juvenile Detention Center. If that happened, his chance to become stronger via becoming a Huntsman would be nil.

After all, who would want to take a chance on someone with a criminal record?

Thus, the only time he would be able to utilized Aura to its full extent would be at Signal and, later, Beacon. And so he waited. The time flew by and soon, it was the end of Summer and the beginning of Autumn.

And it was at this point where Vanitas took his first step into a brand new life.

* * *

Vanitas left the orphanage early in the morning, making sure to pack some supplies beforehand. The amount of supplies that he needed to take with him was so much that he almost resorted to getting an additional bag to hold them all before he finally managed to stuff all of it in. Barely. When he was done, the backpack looked as though it was ready to explode at any given moment. It wouldn't though, he'd already tested it.

Within his backpack contained various textbooks and other necessary school supplies, like pen, paper, pencil, and all that jazz, that was needed so that he can succeed in combat school. Since he was going to be living in a dormitory at Signal, he also packed mundane necessities such as clothes, toothbrush, and other things of that nature as well. It wouldn't do to look like a slob.

Initially, he was not going to bother with informing other people in the orphanage of his departure. However, as per his deal with Ozpin, which he grudgingly followed, he was obligated to inform the orphanage of his departure. He had left a note at the door of the man who owned the building with a message stating that he was going to Signal. After fulfilling that obligation, he quickly moved on.

As he walked from the residential district to the port at the other side to the city, he began to entertain the thoughts of how the other residents would react to his sudden departure. He wondered how the other residents would feel as a result of him leaving.

He sighed.

If he had to be honest, they would probably feel happy. Really happy. And why wouldn't they? He had spent close to a decade making every other people around his age as fearful of him as possible. He had spent every moment getting into as many fights as he could get away with with his fellow man and had spent almost just as much time on relentlessly mocking the faunus for their animal traits. The caretakers didn't like him either, seeing as he caused them no end of headaches and extra paperwork. Now that he's gone, they all wouldn't have to worry as much. In fact, they would probably hold a party in celebration of his being gone.

As Vanitas thought more and more about the inhabitants of the orphanage, he began to get more and more irritated.

'Well, forget them,' he thought dismissively. 'I don't need them. I got bigger things waiting for me.' It's not like he cared. And it's not he would have ever gotten along with the people inside the orphanage. They were all just so pathetic. In fact, chances are, he would never see any of them ever again. So there was no point thinking about it.

Dismissing his thoughts, Vanitas then continued onward to his destination.

* * *

 **A Girl Wearing Red**

Vanitas arrived at his destination. Having passed the entrance to the harbor, he noticed that there was a lot of people just waiting around the area. Some were sitting down, others were standing around, but the one thing that they all did was wait. Many of them happened to be around his age as well. Chances are, these people that appeared to be loitering are also students of Signal, waiting for the passenger ship that would take them all to Patch, the island where Signal Academy resided.

Following the example of everyone else around him, he found an empty spot with hardly any people and sat down. He took out both his scroll and ticket. He looked at the time first and then his ticket. According to his scroll, it was about seven in the morning and according to his ticket, the passenger ship that is supposed to take him to Patch is scheduled to come by at seven thirty before leaving at eight.

'Great,' he thought sarcastically. 'Thirty minutes of waiting.'

He was not a very patient person, especially when he was bored. Despite the fact that he only had to sit down and wait only thirty minutes to board the ship, he found that he could not stand sitting down and doing absolutely nothing.

'Forget this.'

Vanitas got up, grabbed his bag, and began explore the area, intending to kill some time by doing so.

For twenty or so minutes, he wandered. As he did, he found that there really wasn't anything interesting going on. There were some people, some humans and others, Faunus. There really wasn't anything or person that caught his attention at the moment. Well...except for one person that was a few distance away from him.

This girl was around his age. She has brown hair and black eyes eyes. Her skin was somewhat tan unlike his own. She appeared to be somewhat taller than him. She was also wearing a cap.

To any average person, she would look like an everyday young, average, ordinary person with no animal traits whatsoever. And who could blame them? This particular person went out of her way to mask her own animal features.

But Vanitas wasn't an average person. Having spent most of his life living in an orphanage that took not only human orphans, but faunus orphans as well, he was well versed in the various methods the faunus used to cover up their appearance. As such, he could easily see through any disguise a faunus may put on. Or, at the very least, have a strong basis for suspicion. So, as far as he could tell, the girl had signs of being a faunus.

What gave it away? It was the cap.

Ordinary, just wearing a cap isn't suspicious all by itself. It was the fact that she kept touching and making adjustments to it, as though she was uncomfortable wearing it. That was what set off alarms. A faunus's ears are sensitive so it would stand to reason that, if she was indeed a faunus, that the cap she was wearing was making her hypothetical second pair of ears uncomfortable. However, it is possible that he was thinking too much about it. It could be that she was just a normal girl who was simply not used to wearing a cap.

Still, he wanted to know.

He took a moment to ponder if he should go and have a 'talk' with her. And by talk, he meant sneak up behind her before running by and quickly snatching the cap to confirm whether or not she was a faunus. He hadn't done something like that in a while considering that he had spent the past three months focusing entirely on training. He checked the time and saw that he had about ten or so minutes to go before the ship arrives.

'Hmm...ten minutes,' he spent a few quick moments deliberating before quickly coming up with an answer. 'Eh, I got enough time. Why the hell not?'

He needed the distraction.

Vanitas quietly sneaked behind the girl. It took him a few minutes to do it, but that was only so he could sneak in such a way that he would not look suspicious at all. Once he was in position, he quickly snatched the cap from the girl with his right hand, revealing a pair of short, round, furry ears.

After quickly confirming that she was a faunus, Vanitas bolted off like a puma, intending to disappear into the crowd. As he ran, he heard the girl screamed as she realized that her cap was stolen.

'Man, this feels good.' he thought. Feelings of elation welled up from within him.

However, before he could savor the moment even more, he heard a pair of footsteps coming at him from behind. He looked over his shoulder, fully expecting that faunus girl whose cap he just snatched to be chasing him. However, what he found was that girl whose ears he had just revealed was not the one chasing him. Instead it was a girl in red and black clothing with red hair so dark that it almost looked black that was the one who was chasing him. She also had silver eyes.

"Geeeeeet baaaaack heeeeeeere!" She shouted somewhat dramatically.

'Ho. Ly. Crap.' he thought in surprise.

Someone was actually standing up for that faunus girl. And what's more- She was actually catching up with him. No one he ever knew could have done that. Then again, everyone he knew so far was weak so it wasn't fair to compare this mystery girl to them. Quickly looking behind him once more, he saw that the girl was just behind him.

In response to the girl's approach, he turned on his Aura and began applying more pedal to the metal. He had recently figured out how to use it without outwardly manifesting it so no outline appeared. He channeled some of the energy to his legs, allowing him to run faster. He bobbed and weaved around the crowd, trying his utmost to shake off this mystery girl. After five or so minutes of this, he looked behind once more. What he saw surprised him for the second time this day.

"You're not getting awaaay!" The girl shouted.

The girl was still behind him. And though there was a decent amount of people between the two of them as a result of him suddenly turning on his aura, he could tell that the girl was slowly but surely catching up to him. He snapped his head back to the front.

'Is she using Aura?' he thought. To him, it was the only possible explanation that could explain how this girl was not only keeping up with him, but catching up to him as well. Either that or she was just naturally that fast.

As he continued running, an intense feeling came to him that caused his heart to flutter. It was a sensation he hadn't felt in a relatively long time. He felt more energetic. He felt a boost in energy that did not come from the Aura that currently providing him additional speed. As soon as it came, he recognized it. And as soon as he recognized it, he put a large smile on his face.

It was excitement.

"Ha ha ha!" He was enjoying this. He really was. Finally, something was challenging him and causing him to exert actual effort. The sensation was so exhilarating that he was actually laughing in joy as a result.

Seeing that the dark red headed girl could keep up with him, he decided to milk this for all it was worth. But before he could, he heard a very loud honking noise.

 **HONK! HONK!**

It was the sound of very loud horn, signaling the arrival of the transportation ship meant to carry people from Vale to Patch.

'Aw,' he thought in disappointment. 'And it was just getting good too.'

Seeing as his fun was cut short by the arrival of the ship, he didn't see the point of hanging on to the cap of that faunus girl any longer. He tossed the cap behind him, intending to make his way to the ship. Taking a look behind him one last time, he saw that the girl stopped chasing him to grab the cap that he had just thrown away.

When he did, the girl stopped following him. Soon, he quickly disappeared into the crowd and made his way to the ship that would bring him to Patch.

* * *

 **A Sparring Match  
**

A few days after that particular event, Vanitas was in Signal. Shortly after attending student orientation,

The first day was filled to the brim with various academics like math, language, and other such courses. The third day, in comparison, was decisively more exciting.

It was really easy to see why he was quite excited for sparring class. It was quite simple, really. He wanted to fight. He wanted to see if the other students were capable of putting up a good fight compared to the people who he had fought before. And not only that, he also wanted to see how strong he was in comparison to the other students. A sort of measuring stick for his growth so to speak.

There was an arena, a circular ring, in the middle of the room. Around the ring and slightly above it was a place where people, such as other students, could sit and spectate the people fighting in the ring below. The whole thing very much resembled a coliseum.

Yet despite his initial excitement, it soon turned to anxious anticipation as the teacher explained to the students that before they would be allowed to peruse the sparring arena, they must learn how the equipment that are used worked. Not only that, they must also learn the rules that they must abide by as well. He also said that because of this, they would only have time for a couple matches.

He really hoped he could participate in at least one of them.

The professor's a man with short black hair, black eyes, wearing black long sleeved shirt that was covered by his black jacket. He wore black pants. The man was tall and was developed somewhat muscularly. He had a somewhat light complexion.

Vanitas, along with other students, were sitting down while their teacher lectured them on how the equipment worked. Vanitas, already knowing how the equipment worked as a result of having done his homework, so to speak, before hand, did not listen. Instead he chose to scout out the competition. Looking at the others, he was mostly unimpressed.

Judging by their body language, a couple of students seem to be nervous, indicated by their constant fidgeting and other such actions. Why they were like that, he did not know, though he suspected that it was because they were green. Some were being inattentive, dozing off. Others were being attentive to the teacher, taking down notes on what the man was saying. A certain few, like him, held themselves with confidence and appeared eager to start sparring. It was possible these students had battle experience like him. If so, then these were the people he needed to fight.

After checking out the other students, Vanitas returned his attention to the man in charge of the class. He had finished speaking about the equipment in the room and what role each item had. Now he was explaining the rules.

"Alright, everyone. Listen up! What I am going to say next is important! Everyone paying attention?" The man looked around the room. After making sure he got the attention of everyone in the room, he continued. "Okay, here's how it's going to go down."

The man explained the rules of combat. He explained that there are only two ways to win. The first was to deplete the opponent's Aura until it was in the red zone as any attacks while it was in the red state would surely break the protection Aura would normally bring. The second was to have the most Aura remaining when the time was up. He also explained various safety rules. After explaining, the man quickly got on with it.

"Okay, students. Now that you all know the rules, we should have enough time for a couple of matches."

At this, many of the students, including Vanitas, were on the edge of their seats.

"Since we do not have as much time as I would have liked, we will only be able to do five matches. Today, the participants of these five matches will be determined by a lottery system." He brought up his scroll and began touching it. The projection behind him changed- showing flashes of each student's portrait for a brief moment before moving on to another one.

"Now before I start randomly pairing you guys and gals up, do any of you have any questions?" A couple of hands shot up, his included. Unfortunately, he didn't get picked.

"Are we going to be using weapons, professor?" a random student said.

"No, we will not," the man quickly responded. "At least not for now, anyway. As you progress through the year, you will eventually be able to craft your own weapons. When that time comes, only then will all of you first year students will be allowed to use weaponry in the arena. Until that time comes, however, you are to fight unarmed. Got it?"

A collections of nods can be seen and a collection of yes can be heard.

"Excellent. Any more questions?"

No one rose their hands.

"Okay," the professor said. "Now we can start."

The man pressed something on his scroll. On the projection screen, the switching between student portraits got slower and slower. Meanwhile, Vanitas crossed his fingers, hoping that he would get lucky and be able to participate in the first match. Soon, it eventually stopped.

It landed on both him and a girl named Ruby Rose.

"Vanitas. Miss Rose. Please come down to the arena."

* * *

Within the circular arena, Vanitas, Ruby, and the professor were standing by.

Vanitas faced his opponent, Ruby, and looked at her. The girl was wearing a look of nervousness on her face as if she was uncomfortable being in the spotlight, even if it was forced on to her randomly by the system.

A tinge of familiarity hit Vanitas from within. The girl looked familiar to him somehow, he thought, but he didn't know why. Why did it felt as though he had seen her before? He looked at her in the eye and saw that it was silver. It was then that a sense of recognition suddenly smacked Vanitas in the face.

'Ah.' he thought. 'It's that girl from the harbor.' It's no wonder why he recognized her. He had already encountered this girl before. He also noticed that she was slightly taller than him. Looking at her face, which had a surprised expression on it- gaping mouth and all, it seemed as though she recognized him as well. She let out a short gasp before speaking.

"I know you," She said. "You're that guy at the harbor!"

He responded in a nonchalant tone.

"Yeah, and?"

"How could you do something like that?" she said to him.

"Do what?" He knew full well what she was referring to. But he decided to play dumb and pretend he did not know what she was talking about.

"What?" She said in a stupendous tone. "You mean you don't even remember?!"

"Not a clue," he lied.

Before anything more could be said, the professor interrupted them.

"Alright, kids, settle down." The professor said. He turned to Ruby and spoke. "I don't know what your problem is with this young boy, miss Rose, but please, leave it at the door."

The professor scolded the girl, making her red in the face. This made Vanitas smiled somewhat deviously as a result.

After that, it was back to business.

"Now both of you, take out your scroll." He and Ruby both took out their electronic device. "Connect your scrolls to the system wirelessly and set it to monitor your Aura." Both of them did. When it was finished, both of their Aura was displayed on a projection for all to see. The Aura meter was displayed in percentage. At one hundred percent, it was displayed green. It would reach yellow upon reaching sixty percent and would turn red upon reaching thirty.

"Alright, you two." the man said. "I want a nice, clean fight. You two got that?"

The two nodded.

"Good! Now get into position."

The two moved to their positions. The two were both several feet away from each other.

Vanitas put out two arms in front of him, fist raised. Ruby did the same.

"You got ten minutes," the professor said. "Begin!"

* * *

At first nothing happened. For Vanitas, it was because he was waiting for the girl to make the first move so he could gauge her skill in combat. For Ruby, it might be because she was nervous. To confirm this, he looked at her. Her body was shaking slightly and her eyes had a slight uncertainty to them. To him, this indicated that his hypothesis might be true.

'Damn it,' he thought. 'Of all the people I had to face, it's someone that's as green as grass.' He had expected his first fight here to be someone with some modicum of skill or confidence. Instead it was with someone who was inexperienced with combat.

'Tch. I'll end this quick.' There was no point in dragging out a fight that had no challenge to it.

Thus, he made the first move.

The spiky black headed boy made a beeline straight for the girl and threw a quick punch with his left hand as a feint, making it look like he was aiming for her face. Knowing her speed, he half-expected the red headed girl to dodge to the side. However, instead of doing that, the girl merely put up her arms to protect her face and locked up her body in place. She even closed her eyes, as if waiting for the impact.

He quickly pulled his left hand back and threw a punch with his dominant hand instead. This time, he aimed it at her gut. The attack landed and Ruby was struck in the gut, knocking the wind out of her and causing her to quickly collapse onto the ground.

On the projection which displayed both his and the red headed girl's Aura, it showed Ruby's aura dropping by twenty percent.

'Man, that is just pathetic.' he thought. 'Twenty percent from just one little punch?' It really would be a mercy just to end it quickly.

He walked towards Ruby and crouched down to the ground. He talked to the girl lying face down.

"Hey, you," he said. "Do you wanna give up now?" he asked.

There was a slight mumble that sounded an awfully like a no. The girl shook her head, confirming that she was not finished yet.

"You sure?"

She put her head up, this time speaking clearly and looking at him in the eye.

"No, I won't give up." She said in a determined yet defiant tone.

"Hmph," he frowned. The girl had more spirit than he thought. "Fine then. Have it your way."

He backed off a few distance from Ruby, allowing her to get up. When she did, he made a beckoning motion towards her with his left hand, as if daring her to come at him. Soon enough, the girl made a dash straight towards him. She moved fast, quickly closing the distance between the two of them in a few seconds. He had expected this, however, and immediately lowered his body. He made a counterclockwise sweeping motion with his right leg, knocking the sliver eyed girl down to the ground once again, this time on her back.

The golden eyed boy then followed up with a quick stomp with his right leg, aiming at her chest. Ruby quickly rolled out of the way, however, and causing Vanitas to succeed in only hitting the floor with his foot, giving the girl enough time to get up from the floor. The girl made another dash for him, only this time she jumped and extended her right leg at him while closing up her left, performing a flying kick in the process.

Vanitas rolled underneath the attack, dodging the attack entirely. Ruby landed on the ground. But having miss in her attempt to hit Vanitas with a flying kick, she stumbled on the landing. He quickly decided to take advantage of this moment of extreme vulnerability by performing a flying kick of his own. Using Aura to boost his speed, he ran. Then, he jumped, doing the same thing that the silver eyed girl had just done but better.

Ruby, having just recovered, turned to look at Vanitas.

 **BAM  
**

And received a boot to the face for her trouble.

She was sent flying straight through the air. Eventually, she hit the ground, landing on her back. Having stars in her eyes, the girl was hardly conscious. Out of pain, she made moaning sounds.

"Ugggh..."

Seeing as the girl was down, he took a quick peek at the projector. For the girl, her Aura gauge was in the red zone at ten percent. For his, it was in the green zone at ninety five percent, which was strange considering he hadn't been hit at all during the fight.

 **BREEEEEEEEET**

A very annoying whistle sound throughout the air causing Vanitas to lose his train of thought. He turned and saw that the person who was blowing the whistle was none other than the professor. The professor then stopped, helped Ruby up from the ground, and announced the winner.

"And we have a winner!" The professor said. "Everyone give a round of applause to Vanitas!"

 **CLAP CLAP CLAP**

"And of course, let's not forget about Miss Ruby Rose as well! Give her a round of applause as well ladies and gentlemen!"

 **CLAP CLAP CLAP**

"Just before I let the two of go, tell me, do you two have anything to say to each other?"

"Ugggh..." was Ruby's nonsensical reply.

"Interesting. What about you, Vanitas? What do you have to say to her?"

Vanitas turned to Ruby.

"You suck at fighting," he said bluntly.

A sad whining sound can be heard emanating from Ruby.

"Well..." the professor said. "That's kinda mean, don't you think?"

"Hmph. Whatever. Can I go again?"

"No, you can't go again. You just had a turn. Let someone else participate."

Exasperated, Vanitas left the arena and returned to seats situated above the arena.

Soon, class ended. In the months that followed, he continued to participate in class, easily winning against the other first year students. He was hardly challenged. And even though he had opponents who surprised him slightly from time to time, he had quickly adapted, putting his first year peers into the ground.

* * *

 **A Conversation**

For the next few months, Vanitas focused all of his time into his training and studies. Outside of sparring in sparring class as well as group projects in and out of the classroom, Vanitas rarely interacted with the other students. Instead he preferred spending his time finishing off all of the assigned homework quickly and then using the rest of the time to train both mind and body.

This has not gone unnoticed by his teachers.

They spent time discussing about the black haired boy. Test scores, sparring results, Aura manipulation, anything really. And after talking about all of this came to this conclusion: that the boy's skill level is far above his first year peers.

Together, Vanitas's teachers had a quick chat with the headmaster of Signal Academy. They convinced him to consider bumping the boy up to Signal's second year course or perhaps even the third year course.

* * *

Vanitas was in an office. The headmaster's office to be precise. Surprisingly, for the first time in what seem to be forever, it wasn't because of his less than desirable behavior. This time, it was regarding his place in Signal Academy, whatever that meant.

He was sitting across from the principal, a older man with a beard and a distinctive baldness. He spoke.

"Vanitas, correct?"

The boy nodded.

"Do you know why I have called you here?"

"Something about my place in Signal Academy?"

"Very close, but no cigar. Vanitas, I have called you here because of your performance."

"Uh huh."

"It has come to my attention that you are outperforming your fellow classmates."

"Which class? Academics? Practicals courses? Sparring class?"

"All of them."

"Wow.

"Yes. Wow, indeed. Since you're outperforming your fellow peers by such a wide margin and subsequently making them all look bad in comparison, I've decided to give you a choice, Vanitas."

"What choice is that?"

"I would have already begun explaining it to you had you not just interrupted me, young man." He cleared his throat with a cough. "Tell me, Vanitas. What would you prefer? To be moved up to a higher level course and potentially no longer be the leading student? Or would you prefer to stay on the normal path and remain at the top?"

"I would prefer the former, actually."

"Really? Tell me why."

"Simple. Being at the top constantly is boring. Reaching towards the top with other people vying for it is much more exciting. After all, what's life without a little conflict? So, if you're offering me a quicker way up, I would like it if you tell me what I would have to do."

"Hmph. I like your answer, young man. Very well, here is what you have to do. In a couple of months, during the weekends, you will be given two tests. One is the written examination. I am quite sure that you can pass it easily enough. The second test is a little bit harder."

"Is the second exam about fighting?"

"Yes, young man. It is about fighting. In the second exam, you will be fighting against one of the many professors in this academy. The professor will, of course, be holding back. And in case you're wondering, you needn't worry about winning or losing as the purpose of the fight is to gauge whether or not you're capable enough to handle higher level of combat."

"Oh, believe me. I'm ready."

"That has yet to be seen. Now stop interrupting me, young man. I was about to explain one last detail. Before you can take the combat test, you will need to create a weapon of your own as the test requires it. Got it?

"Got it."

"Good."

* * *

 **A Weapon  
**

Halfway through the year, Vanitas finally had an opportunity to craft his own weapon. The teacher of the weapons class had just assigned all of his students to create a weapon of their very own.

Initially excited, he quickly went through many designs of his very own. However, he then quickly found that none of the designs he had created satisfied him.

A sword, a large hammer, greaves, gloves, guns, none of these type of weapon was satisfactory to him. Sure, he could just create a weapon, use it, and probably achieve some great results despite there being a lack of a...click for lack of a better term. But if he wasn't happy with it, then what would be the point of using it?

There would've been none.

However, as luck would have it, an inspiration came to him in a dream. He dreamed of a weapon with a black and red color scheme with varying shades of grey along the middle of the weapon with gear cogs decorating the weapon at various points.

The handle of the hilt is red, along with the guard which resembled a red and black cog. At the very bottom of the weapon is a key chain. It was made up of multiple miniature cogs ending with two half cogs connected to each other to resemble an S. The cross guard of the weapon is grey, adorned with a demonic blue eye. After that was the shaft. It too was grey, though straight in the middle of shaft was another cog. And along the shaft were two chains at the bottom and top of the shaft arranged in such a way that it was shaped like an X. At the very top of the shaft was another demonic blue eye. The weapon ends with another slightly bigger gear at the top of the weapon.

The weapon had an overall shape of a sword. Strangely enough, the whole thing reminded him of a key and a blade, what with the key chain at the bottom and all. If he had to put a term to it, he would call the weapon a 'Keyblade'.

Soon after, he woke up and put the design of the weapon on paper lest he forget it. After school, he gathered all the materials he thought he would need to craft the weapon at the very next weekend. After hours and hours of meticulous working and planning during the week, the weekend finally came. He made his way to the school's forge and began crafting his weapon. He spent a long time in there, making sure

And soon after that, he forged the weapon, dubbing it 'Void Gear.'

Unlike the weapon in his dream, this weapon had slight changes made to it. For one, there was no key chain attached to it. On the handle, there was a trigger. There were no demonic blue eyes on the weapon either. The top of the weapon, though still maintaining its gear-like appearance was changed to become a container that accepted dust. That way, if he ever needed to use dust in tandem with his normal attacks, he could simply just press the trigger on the handle, flip his weapon horizontally, and swing. It was interchangeable too, so if it ever broke, he could simply just replace it. Other than that, the weapon otherwise perfectly resembled the one in his dream.

Vanitas now had a weapon that he would be proud to bring to the test.

* * *

 **A Test  
**

Months after that conversation had taken place, weeks ever since he had crafted his weapon, on the very last day of the two day break allotted by the weekend, Vanitas had made his way to the academy's sparring arena where his sparring class typically frequent. The day prior, he had gone to the school's testing center where he took the school's placement test electronically. He felt as though he had done rather well as he had finished quickly with little to no difficulty.

 **CLANG**

Now, he was thirty minutes into combat with Professor Branwen, one of his teacher, in the school's combat arena. He has gray spiky hair, with a red tattered cloak. He wears a gray dress shirt, black dress pants, and black dress shoes. His weapon, almost as tall as the man himself, is a large metallic blade that the man had no trouble holding with one hand.

Given the nature of weapons made in this day and age, it probably has an alternate form as well. He just hadn't seen it yet.

Vanitas swung at the man with as much force as he thought was needed at the man, aiming to strike him in the chest. The man brought his weapon up in a defensive position. When he was just about to make contact with the large weapon, the man shifted his weapon to his left, bringing Vanitas's weapon to his right as well. The result was that Vanitas was now off-balanced. The man decided to take advantage of this and swung his weapon downward forcefully at Vanitas.

However, Vanitas saw this move coming. Instead of attempting to regain his center and meet the professor head on in a dead lock, he instinctively cartwheeled to the right, avoiding the downward swing. He swung his weapon again at the man, determined to land a hit. The man, however, blocked his attack. Professor Branwen shifted his weapon upward, causing Vanitas center to be shifted upwards. Instead of going in for a swing with his blade, the older man decided to follow up with a slightly faster attack. He took a quick step forward, lifted up his other leg and shot it outward like a bullet. The attack landed, striking Vanitas in the chest. Vanitas was sent flying backwards across the arena.

Mid-air, Vanitas managed to recover and land on his feet.

"You're doing good, kid!" The man yelled from across the arena. "Most students would have probably been taken down by now!"

Vanitas didn't respond to this encouragement. He was too busy planning how to best this man in combat.

'Perhaps I should...No that would never work. Perhaps if I...no, that wouldn't work either.' The man across the field was good. Really good. One of the best, the man had said. He's so good, in fact, that he hadn't managed to land a single hit yet. He kept trying to come up with ways to get an edge over the professor, but the man was able to repel him each and every time. Not only that, the man was able to land hits on hand from time to time.

To say that he was impressed would be an understatement. Though the man claimed that he was holding back, if this is the level of skill and power that a huntsman possess, then he really couldn't wait until he got to Beacon Academy.

Quickly deciding that planning wasn't going to get him anywhere, Vanitas decided to throw caution to the wind and go all out. He poured his Aura into his weapon and swung it at the man's general direction. The black Aura released itself from the blade, flying directly at Professor Branwen. Just after throwing it at the man, Vanitas dashed towards him.

Professor Branwen guarded himself against the Aura wave just as he hoped for. The energy wave made impact against the large greatsword, creating a sort of smoke or mist that would likely impair the man's view of him. Vanitas jumped into the air, bringing his weapon in the air with two hands while flipping it horizontally. He pressed the trigger near the top of the handle, prepping the blue dust inside the teeth of his weapon.

He slammed his weapon downward, creating a large pillar of ice. It was large enough to have encased his teacher up to his waist...had it actually managed to hit him.

Vanitas looked up and saw that the man was not currently encased in the large pillar of ice. Nudging himself a little to the side from his current position, he saw that the man was quite a few steps away from him. He probably back stepped, avoiding the attack entirely as a result.

"Pretty nice, kid. You used your Aura to launch a ranged attack. Then while I was preoccupied guarding against it, you came in for the kill." He pointed to the large ice pillar. He made a whistling sound, as if impressed. "Look at the size of that thing. If that had hit, I would've been out for sure! Still...did you think of what would have happened if you hadn't hit me?" He said, referencing Vanitas's current precarious situation.

"...Yeah." Vanitas began lifting his weapon, the top of which was currently encased in heavy ice, using Aura to boost his strength. "Arrgh!" He let out a grunt. Soon, the weapon was freed from the ground, though not without consequence.

The ice pillar was still stuck onto the weapon. In a way, it made his entire weapon resembled a war hammer, with the ice pillar effectively acting as its head. The bottom of the pillar was the blunt side and the top acted like an very long pick. It was extremely heavy too.

It was okay, though, as he was planning on it.

"Wow." The professor said.

Vanitas rushed at the man once more, bringing his weapon in for a downward swing. Professor Branwen put up his guard again. The two weapons met once again, causing the ice to fracture. The man attempted to throw Vanitas's off-balanced once again, but due to the combined weight of both his own weapon and Vanitas's icy make shift hammer, he could not do this. Noticing this, Vanitas quickly relented and pulled back his weapon and, with a quick pirouette, swung it at the man's stomach.

The man quickly adjusted his sword to block the attack. The make shift hammer met the blade, the sheer force of it pushed Professor Branwen back a good distance away from Vanitas. He continued to press the offensive towards Branwen, flipping his weapon horizontally once again to make use of the rest of the ice pillar. He jumped into the air once more and swung it downward at the man. The man, however, countered it.

Somehow, he managed to slid himself close to Vanitas, avoiding the large ice pillar that was currently being used as a pick, and took hold of the black haired boy's weapon with his free hand.

"Your offense is pretty good...for a student." The man complimented him. "But just how good is your defense?"

The man slid his weapon to the top of Vanitas's weapon, where the base of the ice pillar is, and flipped the switch on his own weapon, causing his large metallic blade to turn into a large scythe. The transformation caused the ice pillar to sliced clean off, making Vanitas's eyes widened.

'Crap,' Vanitas thought. He pulled and tugged on his weapon, trying hard to get it free from the man holding it in his hand. However, the huntsman turned teacher was much stronger, utilizing both natural strength and Aura to maintain his hold, preventing Vanitas from freeing

The man then let go of Vanitas's weapon, but not before delivering a powerful kick at the boy's chest. Once again, the boy was thrown backwards. And once again, the boy managed to recover in mid air and land on his feet.

After recovering, the golden eyed boy looked up. He saw the professor coming at him with an insanely huge scythe. Immediately, he knew he had to go on the defensive. The man swung at him repeatedly, performing twirls, slashes, and any other things that can be done with a scythe. Instead of attempting to parry these with his weapon, he focused entirely on dodging the quick attacks. He continuously moved backwards, performing a cartwheel to the side each time he got to close to the wall.

He continued to do this until he began feeling a slight numbing sensation in his body and a brief lapse in consciousness. He noticed that he was starting to breathe heavily and that there was a distinct lack of energy in him. Not Aura energy, just energy in general.

'Urgh...' In this state of exhaustion, there was a lack of judgement. Due to this lack of judgement, he made a mistake of throwing out an attack when he shouldn't. And due to his tiredness, this attack, a quick horizontal slash to the right, came out slow and without proper grip. This extremely pathetic attack was easily repelled by Professor Branwen, who swung his own weapon at it, instantly disarming Vanitas in a flash.

Vanitas blinked.

'What just happened?' he thought. He couldn't think of anything more as a large intimidating scythe stopped short of his neck. He looked up at the man wielding the scythe-sword.

Professor Branwen spoke.

"The match is over, Vanitas." He removed his scythe from Vanitas's neck area, transformed it into its inactive state, and placed on his back in one smooth motion. As he did, Vanitas let out a breathe that he didn't know that he was holding.

Afterwards, Vanitas took a quick moment to catch his breath. After doing so, he asked the professor a question.

"What's...the result?" he asked.

"Well, Vanitas," Professor Branwen began to explain. "You've managed to press a good offensive against me. You've did a good enough job defending yourself against my attacks. Not only that, you have great stamina as well seeing as we've been fighting more at least more than thirty minutes. I mean, sure, I've been holding back, but you did well. All in all, I say you definitively deserved to be at least the third year course, if not in Beacon Academy, already."

"So...I pass?"

"Yes, Vanitas. You passed. Congratulations!"

* * *

 **A Man in a Black Coat**

Close to the end of the school year, during the weekend, Vanitas was currently at the Dust til Dawn store.

Why?

He needed to stockpile dust while he still can. There have been talks around the school that some people in Vale have been hitting up Dust stores. Rather successfully too, seeing as the price of Dust have been steadily increasing ever since he got the memo.

It used to be that he could get a couple pound of dust for only fifty Lien. Now he would be lucky if he could get a single pound of that same amount.

After making his way to the store at night fall and purchasing a rather substantial amount of dust, which was contained in two large vial containers which were also contained in a plastic bag, he exited the building.

He held the bag containing the vials in his left hand while holding the case containing his weapon in his right hand.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a tall person in a black coat snatched his supply of blue dust right from him and ran off. It happened so suddenly that Vanitas was left stunned for a moment or two before he regained his bearings.

No longer stunned, Vanitas felt enraged at having been robbed. Enraged by this act of theft, he began chasing after the thief.

The chase went on and on.

After a while, he finally chased the thief into a corner. Or rather, a tall empty warehouse. Taking out his weapon from its case and abandoning it outside, he proceeded inside the building ready to lay down some hurt to the person that slighted him.

Inside the dark warehouse, Vanitas made a quick inspection. He noted that inside the building, there was hardly anything in it. The only thing worth noting was how dank the place was and the vials of dust he had purchased laying on the floor in the center of the building. With the fact that the thief that had stolen his dust was nowhere to be seen noted, he looked around in suspicion.

He looked left. He saw nothing of note. Then, he looked right. Still nothing. Hell, he looked behind him as well and there was still nothing.

Vanitas looked at the vials located at the center. He was obviously being set up for a trap. Regardless, he needed that vial. He couldn't just go back and buy some more vials. The stuff was expensive!

No, He wasn't going to give up now. No matter what happens, he will not admit defeat to something such as this.

He approached the vial cautiously. When he got close enough to interact with the vials, he heard a sound of a round being discharged above him.

Reacting quickly, he dodged out of the way, rolling to the side while simultaneously grabbing and placing the vials in his pouch. The round, which had a red coloration and shaped like a diamond, hit the ground where Vanitas was just standing. After a second, it dissipated.

After getting up to his feet, he immediately got into battle position. He looked above, scanning for the person that had just fired at him. However he could find no one hiding above him.

'Strange,' he thought. 'Where is he?'

He was sure that the sound originated from above.

"Oh, what's the matter, kiddo? Looking for someone?" A masculine voice that sounded both laid back yet cocky came from behind him. Vanitas turned around to face the man that had stolen from him, who was approximately a few distances away from him.

"You!" he shouted. He shifted out of his stance to point his weapon at the strange man.

"Me." The man responded sarcastically while pointing his thumbs at himself.

"You shouldn't have stolen from me," He went straight into making threats at the man. In an attempt to make himself sound more threatening, he lower his voice. "Cause now, I'm gonna beat you down." He said as he glared aggressively at the man, hoping to intimidate him.

"Oooh...scary." The man said, still maintaining his sarcastic manner. The man was not intimidated. Undeterred, the boy continued.

"But before I do that...tell me...what the hell do you want from me?!"

It was a good question, seeing as the man not only took the time to not only steal from him, but also led him to an abandoned warehouse where he was had to walk into a trap in order to bring him out. There was a motive here and he wanted to know what it was.

The man suddenly burst out laughing, slightly confusing Vanitas.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" After a while, the stopped. Looking at him, the man spoke. "Man, for someone who looks just like him, you sure don't act nice at all. You remind me more of someone else, though, what with that angry look and all."

"Huh?" The boy was even more confused. As a result, he resumed glaring intensely. "What are you talking about?!" He shouted.

"Ha ha ha ha!" The man burst out laughing again. "There it is again!"

'This guy isn't making sense,' he thought.

"Heh," the man stopped laughing. "Tell you what, kiddo," he put both his hands up and two strange looking weapons suddenly materialized in the man's hands. In response, Vanitas got into battle position once more. "If you really wanna know why I got your attention..."

Vanitas held his weapon at the ready.

"You're gonna have to fight me for it."

* * *

The battle had begun. But the fight did not go off instantly. Instead, the two combatants were staring at each other, analyzing each other, gauging each other, and other such terms. When one of them would make a major move, the battle would begin.

The boy looked at the weapons that the man in the black coat was holding in both hands. As far as he could tell, the two weapons appeared to be a some sort of gun. What type, he couldn't really say. None of the models that he knew of matched the look of the guns that were currently in service.

What he could say about the weapons was that the two guns certainly held a resemblance to crossbows and that the things that was shaped like a diamond underneath the guns were likely the amount of rounds he currently has. He has about six shots in each gun, meaning he had twelve shots in total.

After looking over his opponent, Vanitas began his attack. Using the power of Aura, he boosted his speed. Using his enhanced speed, he darted across the warehouse and slashed at the man in front of him.

The man in front of him suddenly disappeared, as if he had warped out of existence. Vanitas missed, hitting nothing but the air in front of him and ended up fumbling as a result.

'What?!'

He heard four shots being fired from behind him. He turned but he was unable to put up his guard fast enough. As a result, there was nothing he could do but rely on his Aura to take the hits for him. The four rounds hit Vanitas. The Aura took the hit, preventing the rounds from embedding themselves into his body. The rounds landed on the ground and, after a few seconds, dissipated.

"Argh!" Vanitas let out a quick cry of pain. Despite the Aura deflecting the rounds, it could not absorb all of the force that the round exerted when they impacted his body. As a result, some damage leaked through. Quickly recovering, Vanitas put his weapon up in front of him, placing himself in a defensive stance.

This time he would have wait for the mysterious man to make the first move.

The mysterious man fired his two weapons again, shooting a two round bursts from both of his guns.

Vanitas dodged out of the way, quickly rolling towards the man and getting back up just as quickly. He slashed at the man in the black coat only to get the same thing that happened last time happen to him.

The man vanished, making Vanitas hit the air again.

'Again?' he thought in frustration. 'Is teleporting this man's semblance or something?!' Vanitas let out a growl.

"Oh, what's the matter, kiddo?" He turned to find the man talking smack to him in a mocking tone. "Can't land a hit?" He said as he aimed his weapons once more.

Knowing what was likely going to happen next, Vanitas rolled out of the way just as the last four shots rang out, avoiding the shots.

All shots have been fired from the man's weapons. The man began to reload. Now was his chance to land a hit! Once again, Vanitas quickly poured his Aura into his weapon raised and swung it at the man's general direction. The black Aura released itself from his weapon, taking the shape of a crescent wave, and flew at the mysterious man in black that was currently reloading. It got closer and closer until suddenly-!

Nothing. The man teleported once more, a few steps away from the spot where he just was rather than teleporting behind him. Vanitas spat out a silent curse upon seeing this.

"Not gonna work, kiddo," the man said in a irritatingly playful tone. "If you wanna hit me, you gotta try something else."

'Tch!' This was getting really annoying. Ever since the battle started, every time he would try to make a move, the man would just teleport out of the way, avoiding his attack entirely. And he could tell that playing it defensively would do no good. Even if he were to play it defensively, there would be no change in the flow of battle. All it would do is prolong it. And the longer the battle becomes, the more likely he will be hit again. If he was anyone else, there would probably be no chance for him to win.

But he wasn't just anyone else. In terms of talent, skill, power, combat in general, so far he's been number one. He would not lose, not like this. There was only one thing he could do. There was only one thing left to try.

Bullet deflection.

To the average person, this was an impossible task. For Hunters, this was standard. For Vanitas, who had spent all his time at school honing his skills though sparring and combat simulations, it was certainly possible for him as well. However, this usually was not a good idea. Hitting bullets while they are in mid flight is horrendously dangerous. The smallest error can easily result in getting hit and, in the worse case, even death.

But if he was to get an edge on this battle, if he wanted to win, it appears as though he would have to hit the bullets right back at the person who shot it. It would require strength, speed, and an fast reaction time. He would also have to use Aura to enhance his reflexes to the point where he could reliably deflect the projectiles right back at the man shooting at him. It would drain him to be sure as doing that would take a lot of Aura. However, if he wanted to win, he would have to do it.

Vanitas stood in place in a defensive position and watched the mysterious figure. His weapon was raised, ready to strike once the time was right. He waited for the man to take the shot. The distinctive sounds of four shots being fired was heard.

He instantly charged himself with Aura and reacted to the attack. He moved to the right so that he would not get hit if he failed while simultaneously swinging his weapon horizontally left to right at the projectiles. He smacked the rounds, sending them flying at the man.

"What?!" The man shouted in surprise. In his moment of surprise, he had unwittingly allowed the deflected bullet to hit him.

"Urgh!" The bullets hit the man, causing him to drop his weapons and go down on his knees. Seeing that he finally had a concrete opening, Vanitas dashed at the man, his weapon raised to attack. He hit the man in the black coat with a quick thrust attack first, following it up with a strong overhead swing downward, and then ending it with a vertical upward slash, performing a back flip in the process.

After the last hit, the man was thrown across the building. He crashed, hitting the wall with his back before landing on the ground with his knees. After that, he quickly got up to his feet and re-materialized his weapons.

"Ha ha ha. Man, you're good!" The man said. "You actually managed to hit me. You know how hard it is for me to get hit?" Despite taking a full combo from the boy, the man acted as though he was unharmed. He let loose a small chuckle. "Ha ha ha, I gotta say, kid. You're pretty good. I know I'm not acting like it, but it actually did hurt. Looks like you're more than just target practice."

"Is that..." Vanitas took a quick breath. "Is that supposed to be a compliment?!" Vanitas, not particularly liking the man's quip, quickly responded in a hostile manner. He was breathing with slightly more effort than usual. The act of using Aura to enhance his body's ability to deflect the projectiles clearly had taken its toll on him.

"As if," he said. The man in the black coat dismissed his weapons, causing them to disappear from his hands.

'What?' Vanitas thought in surprise. 'What is he doing?'

"Hah. I'd like to play with you a little bit more, kiddo, I really would. But I got no more time to spare. After all," a dark portal appeared from behind him. "I got places to be and plans to enact. But don't worry kiddo, I'll be back. Might not be tomorrow. Might not be next month. Hell, maybe not even next year."

The man began moving backwards into the portal.

"But know this, kiddo- The Organization's got its eyes on you now."

The man was at the very edge of it now. Before he stepped into the portal, he gave a wave and one last statement.

"Be a good boy now!" The man stepped into the portal.

Not wanting to let him get away, Vanitas ran towards the man to try to land one last hit on the man. However, though he was not too tired, he was tired enough to not have instantly closed the gap like he had did before at the beginning of the fight. By the time he had reached his destination and swung, the man had disappeared into the darkness, leaving behind nothing that would indicate that the man, himself, was there in the first place.

The black haired boy was shaking. Not in relief, not in happiness, not in any positive emotions. Looking at the spot the man once was, he threw his weapon at the ground in anger.

"Argh! Damn it!" he shouted. "He got away!" He let loose an angry scream, letting out all his anger. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!" After a while of doing this, he stopped.

Vanitas, standing silently alone in an empty warehouse after throwing his fit, felt hardly anything now. Deep within him, he could only feel a sense of disappointment and, not surprisingly, confusion.

He had questions. Lots of them.

For instance- what was that shadowy thing that the man in the black coat used to get out of here? Why did he take an interest in him? What was he going on about when he start blabbing about how he looked like someone else? And most importantly, what exactly is the Organization?

He was embroiled into something big. He could feel it in his guts. Now...he has to know.

* * *

 **An Invitation**

After meeting and fighting the man in the black coat, Vanitas had spent a week or so in his spare time looking for him.

He had looked in the South East district of the city, where he fought the man, but had no luck finding him. He had done some asking around in the criminal underworld about a group called 'The Organization' and people dressed in black coats. On both counts, there was little to no information

And so, with a heavy heart, Vanitas was forced to let the issue go. At least for now. If any new information were to come up regarding both topics, he would re-pursue it. Until then, he had to focus on what remained of the school year and on getting stronger as well.

For the rest of year, the golden eyed boy trained. Eventually, one day, he received a sudden e-mail from Ozpin. Curious as to how the man had gotten a hold of his email account and the contents in the message, he opened it.

 _Hello, Vanitas. This is Professor Ozpin from Beacon Academy. I'd bet you're wondering how I got your email, correct?_

'Correct.' he thought.

 _I would answer, but for reasons I cannot explain, I cannot divulge that information. So let's just say that I have my ways._

'Of course.' Vanitas rolled his eyes.

 _I've been hearing many things about you, young man, from many of my associates within Signal Academy._

'Oh, really?' This caught Vanitas's eye and he began paying the message his undivided attention.

 _Many of them are good, yet there are some things that are of some concern. Such as your lack of friends._

'...'

 _But that is not why I have contacted you. I'll keep this brief. You see, I've been told that you are skipping straight to the third year course in Signal Academy. I've also been told that you've put up quite a fight against Professor Branwen as well. Regardless of the fact that the man held himself back, it is still an impressive feat for a student to be able to fight him as well as you did. Because of these two reasons, I have decided to give you an offer.  
_

'An offer?' he thought. 'What kind of offer?'

 _Young man, I would like to extend an early invitation to Beacon Academy to you._

'What?' Vanitas's eyes widened. 'Really?'

 _As Headmaster of Beacon Academy, it is well within my power to let you attend my academy at a younger age. If you accept, you will become the youngest huntsman in training in the history of Beacon Academy._

 _I graciously await your reply.  
_

The message ends there.

Vanitas was pleasantly surprised to say the least. At this point, it was a no brainer on what he would do next. He quickly typed up a message on his scroll and sent it to Ozpin.

* * *

 **If you want to skip the answer segment to prevent any small spoilers, scroll down to the bottom.  
**

* * *

 **LightJak: If I happened to create a original team just for Vanitas, they probably won't be reminiscent of both Riku and Kairi in either looks or personality. The whole Sora/Riku/Kairi dynamic wouldn't work with Vanitas. Well, the Vanitas in this story, at least. Can't say anything else beyond that.**

 **Ashbel: Considering Vanitas's personality, his relationship with the cast of RWBY will certainly start out bad. The only exception to this is Ozpin since he was the one that introduced the world of Huntsman and Huntresses to him and even then it's not an amicable relationship. Vanitas may or may not join one of teams from the show or a original team. Can't say anything more than that.**

 **The Baz: Not sure if the question is rhetorical or not. Still gonna answer. First off, I don't mean relationship or pairing in the romantic sense of the world. I just meant relationship as in friendship. With that said, it would take a person willing to overlook all the flaws that Vanitas has to even have a chance of forging such a bond with him. That would be a miracle in and out of itself.**

 **Antex: In the order asked, 1) It's not that Vanitas disrespect the Faunus. It's just that the Faunus tend to be easier targets for him though I can say with certainty that if Vanitas ever meets Blake and finds out what she is, shenanigans will likely happen. 2) First part has been addressed above. As for the part concerning the possibility of Vanitas joining team RWBY, can't say. 3) Can't say, but I can say this. Change is brought about as a result of constant interactions with other people.**

 **DPSS: The Unversed are a product of Vanitas's unstable emotions. In Kingdom Hearts, emotions come from the heart. In RWBY, semblances are a more specialized projection of Aura, which comes from the soul. As such, Vanitas's semblance will not be the Unversed. As for his semblance, can't say. If all you're worried about is Vanitas not summoning Unversed every time he gets angry or sad like he should be, don't worry. There is a reason why they haven't shown up yet but they will certainly be making an appearance. Just...not now. Or soon. Or even later. You're just gonna have to wait and see.  
**

 **Raximus: He'll definitely bring out the Keyblade at some point. Later on, yes. Now? No. And when he does summon it, it'll be Void Gear. Anything else would just be weird.**

 **Puzzle: From the two shows? No. Having characters from RvB appear would likely break the magic that is KH. As for the other show you mentioned, I don't know what that is.**

* * *

 **A/N : First, commentary and then some news.  
**

 **Commentary : First off, for this chapter, I decided on a little show and not tell regarding Vanitas's penchant for harming others. I wanted to show Vanitas choosing to hurt someone in a playful, if definitely cruel, manner. **

**Initially, I wanted a scene where Ruby and Vanitas would meet inside the ship heading to patch and have them not like each other from the get go. I didn't do this cause it just didn't feel right. So I got rid of it.**

 **Vanitas fought Ruby in a battle, if you could call it that. I remembered Ruby saying she was completely hopeless in combat before Qrow trained her, so I made her really bad in her sparring match against Vanitas as a result.  
**

 **After that, all the other scenes in school are to show Vanitas's skill in battle. Whether it be close combat, ranged, or even in a verbal smack down, he's got the skills to pay the bills.**

 **I really god damn hoped I did Qrow some god damn justice. Especially considering I don't know his personality or fighting style at all.  
**

 **Vanitas meets a man in a black coat that dual wields a pair of exotic looking guns. We all know who this guy is, hopefully. Right? It was a bit hard writing this battle. Ranged vs melee is usually not fun to write. I also felt that I could have written more...interesting things for it. Ah well, what's done is done. Place your bets on why he's in Remnant and when he will appear again. I dare you.  
**

 **Since Vanitas went from a Year 1 course to a Year 3 course within a single year, one can expect Ozpin to take notice of this. As such, Ozpin, impressed by Vanitas's diligent efforts and skills, allowed Vanitas to join Beacon early. Hurray! Of course, that was just an excuse I needed to put Vanitas in Beacon at age 15.**

 **News : Oh man, oh man. I got some good news and uh...other news, I guess. Or it could all be good news. It really depends on your perspective.**

 **Good news is that we are out of the prologue phase of the story. This means we are now going to be seeing a lot more interactions between Vanitas and the other cast. Huzzah!  
**

 **Other news is that what I am going to try to do is not force Vanitas into the plot of RWBY. What I mean is that I want Vanitas to have his own role in this. I don't want him to feel as though he's just tagging along for the ride so to speak. He'll have his own story in this world. What this means is that you all should expect some original stuff to happen in lieu of repeats of scenes from the show. I'm pretty sure everyone knows what happened within the show already.  
**

 **So yeah. There's that.**

 **Also slight spoiler- next chapter won't be the continuation of the story. That's next month. The next one, which should come fairly early, is more for elaboration of one of the plot points of this story as well as setting up a plot point farther down the line.**

 **Thanks for reading Empty in Remnant. If you liked the story, please fav, follow, or review.**

 **PEACE OUT!**


	7. Chapter 7

Empty In Remnant

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, RWBY, or any other works associated with them.

 **It's not time for Volume I. That's next chapter. This chapter is more of an interlude. That being said, this chapter is still important as it establishes several undergoing plot bombs that will implode later on in this story. So pay attention.**

 **This takes place just after Vanitas's battle with Xigbar.  
**

 **Also, put on 'Organization XIII' theme music.**

Chapter 7: The Interlude.

* * *

In the 'Room Where Nothing Gathers,' an all white round room with thirteen seats of varying heights, there were three people currently in the room.

The first was Xigbar, the second founding member of Organization XIII who had just came back from a reconnaissance mission to a world with a shattered moon. He wore the usual uniform of Organization XIII. He has black hair with several grey streaks in his somewhat long hair that ended with a ponytail. He has golden eyes, though his right eye is covered with a black eye patch. There is a large scar on the left side of his face that extends from his left cheek to just under his left eye.

The second person that was currently engaged in talking with the one eyed man was Saix, ranked seven within the Organization. He is considered the second in command within Organization XIII. Along with the usual garb of the Organization, he has long light blue hair that just almost reaches his back as well as possessing golden eyes and a large distinctive X-shaped scar in the middle of his face.

The third person that was overlooking the two was the man who created Organization XIII, Xemnas. Being the creator of the Organization, he is naturally ranked first within the Organization. Along with the basic garb of the cloaks that originated from him, his most distinctive traits are his long silver hair that reaches his mid-back, relatively dark skin, and amber-orange eyes.

Xigbar, who came back from a reconnaissance mission from a newly discovered world - the one with the shattered moon - had just finished giving the first half of his report to Saix. He had basically told the impassive man everything there was to know about the world of Remnant...well, everything that the one eyed man had learned, at least. Along with the most basic information about the world that he learned, he also gave the man his thoughts on the local heartless presence on that particular planet.

Or rather, a lack of one.

"...There are no heartless on that world?" Saix asked.

"Nope," the one eyed man make an exaggerated hand gesture. "Surprised me too. There isn't a heartless to be found. No emblems, no pure-bloods, no nothing. Just these strange red eyed creatures with mask. I don't know about you, but I think it may possibly be that world's way of manifesting its own darkness."

"Hmph. Irrelevant. If there are no heartless in that world, then it has no use for Organization XIII."

"Whoa, don't be so quick to dismiss this world," Xigbar quickly interjected. "After all, it could be of some use for us in the future."

"Use? If there are no heartless on that world, then that means that there are no hearts to harvest, making it useless for the construction of Kingdom Hearts."

Kingdom Hearts. In legends, it is stated that the heart shaped entity is a source of ultimate power and wisdom. If a person were to come into possession of that power, it could be used for many things. It could be used for power. It could be used for knowledge. It could be used to gather all of the many separate worlds and fuse them all back into one. It could also be used to reformed the entire universe to one's liking.

Perhaps, it could even give the members of the Organization their lost hearts back.

Organization XIII, its members, and perhaps even this world itself are all Nobodies. Creatures without hearts to call their own. The heart that is being spoke of is not the organic muscular organ that pumps blood within their bodies, no. The heart that is being spoken of is something else entirely. In fact, it can even manifest itself in a non organic body. Within everything that can think, breathe, move, or otherwise leave behind evidence of their own existence, there is a heart. Most importantly, however, a heart is able to allow an individual to experience emotions; Something that the Nobodies cannot experience when their own hearts have been lost to the darkness.

The entire reason for the Organization's existence is for this sole purpose.

To give form to Kingdom Hearts, they would need hearts. Hearts of the Heartless. These Heartless, created whenever a person loses their hearts to the darkness in one way or another, are crucial to the creation of Kingdom Hearts. These heartless, when properly slain, release the hearts they hold captive. Whenever this happens, Organization XIII, through various means, collects these hearts. The heart shaped moon shining down on this world is proof of their efforts.

However, it is still incomplete.

"We need more hearts, Xigbar." Saix said in a matter of fact way. "If this new world, Remnant, is unable to provide us with any, then it is as good as useless."

"Hmph. And like I said, don't be so quick to dismiss the world in its entirety. You still haven't heard the rest of what I have to say."

"And what would that be exactly?"

Xigbar smiled cockily.

"Well, for one thing, on that very world, I found a kid that - you're not gonna believe this - looks exactly like Sora."

Saix raised an eyebrow at this claim.

"You found a child that looks exactly like Sora? The exact same Sora who defeated Ansem, the exact same Sora who wiped out Marluxia, the exact same Sora who spawned Roxas, You found a person that looks exactly like this Sora?"

"Well...almost."

"What do you mean 'almost'?"

"Well, this kid. He's got basically the same look as Sora, but with a few distinct differences. For one example, he's got black hair instead of brown. And instead of tanned skin, he's got pale skin instead. And-"

"Xigbar," Saix calmly interrupted. "While it is indeed interesting to note that there is a young man that bares great resemblance to Sora, unless he can be of some use for the Organization, then I'm afraid that this line of discussion is finished."

"Then luckily for me, I can prove that this kid can be of some use to us."

"How?"

"Well, if you had let me finished what I was going to say, I would've told you. There are three more things that makes this kid so interesting. One- He's got golden eyes like us."

"Golden eyes..." Saix said. "Then that means - "

"Yep. That kid's a bit like us. Touched by the darkness." Xigbar continued to talk. "The second thing - is that the kid can utilize darkness."

"Did he truly?" Saix asked.

"Yep. Surprised the heck out of me. After all, though he may have the same eyes as us, the fact of the matter is that the kid looks almost identical to Sora. And Sora, from the start of his journey to the very end, has always been fighting against the darkness. So imagine my surprise when the little tyke, who looks practically identical to the kid, managed to channel it."

"How did he channel it?" A deep yet eloquent voice said with a tone of interest. Sitting in the highest chair in the room, just above both Xigbar's and Saix's, the Superior of the Organization, Xemnas, joined the conversation.

Smiling ever so slightly at getting the attention of Xemnas, Xigbar continued.

"Well, the kid only channeled it once before getting somewhat tuckered out. But the way he used it was just like how you or I would use it." Xigbar began recounting the fight. "For most of the fight, the kid had been tossed around. He was trying to land hits on yours truly, only to fail when I teleported away and unleashed a barrage of projectiles at the little tyke. Well, I supposed he got fed up at some point, because then a large dark aura began radiating from him. After that, when I shot some rounds at him, the kid suddenly smacked it right back at me. Then, while I was stunned, the kid suddenly appeared in front of me, as if he teleported or something. Then after that, he smacked me around. And then, with his final hit, he launched me across an entire building."

"Did he now?" Xemnas said. Xigbar nodded, confirming it. "Intriguing."

Xigbar continued on.

"And that's not all. I think, judging from the way he just brushed it off and continued on as if nothing happened, that the boy didn't even noticed what exactly it is that he just did."

"Xigbar," Saix quickly interjected. "Let us assume that what you're saying is accurate. Then so what? So what if the boy bears great resemblance to Sora? So what if the boy can utilize darkness, even if unknowingly. Unless the boy can wield the keyblade exactly like how both Sora and Roxas can and reap the hearts of the Heartless - then unless you're planning on turning him into a Heartless, the boy is useless to us."

"Hah. I knew you might say that, so that's why I saved the best for last. You see, this kid I'm talking about? When I engaged the boy in combat, he was holding a peculiar weapon in his hand. A weapon, red and black, that looked like it was made of multiple cogs that, all in all, looked like a key."

Saix's eyes widened slightly, breaking his stoic facial expression. He quickly regained his composure and asked a very important question.

"Xigbar...do you mean to say that he has a Keyblade as well?"

"Nope," was Xigbar's quick response. He had a smug look on his face as he said it.

"...What?"

"That's not a Keyblade."

"How would you know?"

"Simple," Xigbar said in a matter of fact way. "It didn't have a key chain."

"...How would..." he shook his head. "No. Never mind. Very well, Xigbar. Let us say that this lack of a key chain indicated that the weapon he wielded was indeed not a Keyblade. Then, Xigbar, why would you point this out?

"Hmph, I thought you would've been able to figure it out by now, second-in-command." Xigbar teased the blue haired stoic.

"With you, Xigbar," Saix responded. "Anything that should be simple becomes exceedingly complex. Now, answer the question."

"Hah, fine. As you wish. You see, just because the kid has a weapon that looks like a Keyblade, yet isn't, doesn't mean it's not important. Rather, it's the fact that the kid has a weapon that looks like a Keyblade in the first place that should be important. After all, Keyblades are rare...and people who wield them, even the ones that are mere imitations, are even rarer."

"..." Saix was strangely quiet...even more than usual.

"You know, Lord Xemnas...should you let me investigate this boy, this may end up becoming a huge boon to the Organization and, by extension, our plans." Xigbar said, making sure to put a subtle yet important emphasis on 'our plans.'

In response, the long silver haired man smiled in a knowing manner, and then spoke.

"What Xigbar has brought to light in his report has been very...illuminating. Indeed, this is something, if fully investigated, could benefit the entire Organization. Sadly," the man said ironically, "I am afraid that we simply do not have enough time to investigate this. With the desertion of our thirteenth member, Roxas, and his subsequent kidnapping by the former master of my previous self, Sora's awakening from his slumber is nigh."

Both Saix and Xigbar remained quiet. Saix, knowing that Xemnas had taken Xigbar's side, quietly ceded. Xemnas then looked at Xigbar specifically and smiled menacingly, giving him a secret message of sort that only the one eyed man could correctly interpret.

"However, should our plans succeed, then I shall permit you to investigate this boy and the world that he inhabits much more thoroughly. Do you understand?"

Xigbar, knowing the hidden message behind the look, smiled knowingly as well.

"I got you loud and clear."

* * *

 **Commentary-**

**Bit of a short chapter, eh? Well, it's an interlude sort of chapter, so it's to be expected. Plus, you guys just had that super long chapter that was like 3 or so chapters mashed together.  
**

 **There's a distinction between dark Aura and dark aura. If you ever see dark Aura with a capital A, that's the power from the soul which Vanitas in this story will normally use. If you see dark aura, it's going to be the power of darkness that originates from Vanitas's heart.  
**

 **I swear this is going to be confusing. Especially if I ever decide to put Dark Aura (the skill) into the mix.**

 **"Vanitas, using dark Aura and dark aura, uses Dark Aura to brutally murder some random character."**

 **As for the reviewer that said Aura doesn't work the way that I'd portrayed it...yeah, you're probably right. But then again, what it can and cannot do is kinda undefined in the sense that there are no apparent limits to it. Further more, in the RWBY wiki, in the trivia section, it is said that Aura can be likened to Ki/Chakra from other medias which, I assume, is referring to DBZ/Naruto. In both of those shows, the things that can done with the two are insane. Ki/Chakra has been used to power up oneself, unleash devastating attacks, attain new forms, and other crap like that. In that sense, the way I portrayed Aura in this fic can be considered 'accurate.' Though if all you meant was the very last part of the fight Vanitas had against Xigbar where Vanitas made things seem slow using his 'Aura,' then yeah. You were one hundred percent right. That wasn't Aura. It was darkness.**

 **I might be interested in a Beta Reader. I say might because of I do get a Beta Reader, chapter updates will almost, certainly, probably be slower. The only reason that I'm somewhat interested in getting a beta reader is that I'm shit at proof-reading.**

 **Yeah, there's that. If you're interested, leave it in your review, send me a pm, whatever.**

 **Thanks for reading Empty in Remnant. The good stuff is coming real soon! Leave a review; Favorite or Follow this story. Or do all three. It would really be swell if you did.  
**


	8. Chapter 8

Empty In Remnant

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, RWBY, or any other works associated with them.

 **Boop.**

 **Alrighty, here's the first chapter of the Volume 1 segment of RWBY.  
**

 **I have no idea how much things are worth in RWBY. Like, how much Lien would it take to buy a single cup of insta-noodle? Knowing would so...helpful in some cases. Eh, I'll just have to assume. So for now, until I get an accurate grasps of it, I'll just assume that one Lien is the equivalent of one U.S dollar.  
**

 **More commentary at the very end.**

Chapter 8: Welcome to Beacon Academy.

* * *

Vanitas was in the Dust til Dawn store. Currently, he was attempting to buy some more dust for his weapon. It had been months since he had last purchased dust and his supplies were starting to run low. Though the price in Lien of Dust in town lately has been increasing steadily due to the increase in Dust theft, his left over money from the UFC had always enabled him to gain more dust. However, due to more ludicrous prices on Dust that were getting even more higher as time passes by, his wallet is quickly becoming an empty well...so to speak.

Because of that, he was forced to haggle. It...wasn't going well at all.

"Hey old man!" Vanitas shouted. "How come you're charging so much for Dust?!"

"Haven't you heard the news, boy?" The old, bald at the top of his head, man who looked as though his eyes were always closed said.

"Yeah, but at those prices, you would be lucky to find a person even willing to buy Dust." he argued. "I mean - come on! Fifty Lien for just a couple of grams?! What do you take more for? I mean - do I look like I'm made out of money?"

The man's put on a troubled expression and sighed.

"Look, I'm sorry, kid," he said in a sympathetic tone. "But you know how it goes. There's a high demand for Dust, but at the same time there's not a whole lot of it to go around because of the robberies. It's simple supply and demand."

"Yeah, I know that. But come on, man. I've been a frequent customer for almost a year! You could at least give me some sort of discount for that, right?"

"Sorry, kid. I can't do that. It's against policy."

Vanitas gave an intimidating stare and directed it at the old man. He also growled aggressively, showing his displeasure. At the sight of this, the old man flinched.

"Sorry," the old man said with a bit of fear evident in his voice. "I really am. But until either the criminals committing all the robberies have been caught, the price of the Dust, here or any other store in Vale, is going to keep rising and rising with each passing day."

Despite being angry at being unable to a get a decent deal, Vanitas could not refute that argument. He let up on the glare and sighed.

"Screw it," he said to himself quietly. "I'll just make due with what I have." The old man seem to have heard him, given the way his expression relaxed. Vanitas then proceeded to leave the store.

As he was about to reach the door heading outside, another person came in. It was a girl dressed in combat skirt along that was black and red, the same colors as he wore, along with a red cloak. She also had those distinctive silver eyes.

'Ruby.'

Judging by the way she had quickly put her hood up and moved to the right side of the store, she seemed to be avoiding him. Could she be afraid of him?

'Hmph. Coward.' he thought. Seeing that there was nothing else of interest, he left the building and began walking to the nearest public transportation. As he walked, his thoughts wandered and eventually, it fell on the topic of the girl he had just ran into.

He didn't like Ruby. Not at all. Neither her personality nor her combat ability made a positive impression.

The girl was...well, to be perfectly honest with himself, he didn't know exactly why he disliked her so much. Perhaps it was because of the way she had confronted him about his misdeeds the very first time they met. Perhaps it was because they have the exact same color scheme going with their clothing. Or perhaps it's because of the way that she's so god damn optimistic all the damn time!

Vanitas clenched his teeth.

Like, seriously! There is nary a bad bone in her body. No desire to lie, no desire to do anything resembling a bad deed, and generally acting like a happy go lucky person. It was like the world always seem to be half full in her eyes.

'I swear, she's like a child or something!'

As for her combat prowess-

At first, he was impressed with her. She did, after all, managed to keep up with him when he nicked that Faunus girl's cap a year ago. And as the previous year went by, she had gotten even faster. Faster than a speeding bullet, that's for sure.

However, that first impression quickly soured. When he had fought her for the first time, she was...well, let's just say that she was a major disappointment and that it completely ruined any positive expectations he might had have for her.

Sure, after a whole year, she did indeed get better, he won't deny that. And her skill with the scythe is definitely top-notched. He should know. He had fought her more than just a couple of times, all of which ended in his victory. But in the end, she was still weaker than him, and in his eyes, that made her as appealing to him as a dead fish left out to rot in the sun. That is to say - not at all.

And so he continued walking, believing that it was the last time he would ever see her again...or at the very least, a long while.

* * *

 **EMPTY IN REMNANT**

* * *

A few months ago, Vanitas had received an e-mail from Ozpin, detailing an offer. The offer was simple. He could either wait until seventeen years old like most normal would be Hunters and attend Beacon Academy then or, through the older man's grace, attend the prestigious academy at the young age of fifteen years old.

He had accepted the man's offer, of course. He coveted strength, power, and all the other synonyms of the two word. He could have stayed behind at Signal, but what point would that served? As a result, he was on the airship heading to Beacon Academy.

As he walked around, he noticed that there were a awful lot of people on this ship. There was so much that it was kinda giving him a sense of eagerness.

There was a reason he felt like this.

These people, just for the mere fact that they are going to Beacon Academy, are likely to be some of the strongest people he'll ever face. After all, from what he had gathered from few conversations that he had with Ozpin in the past, Beacon Academy seem to be a place where the strongest people are trained. As a result, this combat facility is very likely to contain people who will be able to match him blow for blow unlike the many people he had fought against in the past.

While wandering the airship, the holographic projection to the side, close to the window, began showing the news. Currently, a male voice was speaking the recent dust robbery that had occurred in the area.

The robbery the man on the news was talking about took place at the Dust til Dawn store, just a little after he had left.

'Man, that's strange.' he thought. 'I was just there.' Then, he sighed.

"The robbery was led by the nefarious criminal, Roman Torchwick, who continues to evade authorities." The disembodied voice said. "If you have any information on his whereabouts, please contact the Vale Police Department."

Vanitas glared at the image of the man that was being displayed.

'Damn it, I should've stuck around! If I had, I would've been able to capture him.'

Upon learning that this man, Roman Torchwick, was responsible for the string of dust robbery in Vale, he instantly made an note of the man. Something or later, he would have to find this man and put a stop to him.

Not because he was a goody two shoes or something like that. He had a personal, if somewhat cheap, reason for it.

Ever since dust stores everywhere in Vale have been getting hit by the robberies, the price of dust have been getting higher. The usage of dust, though not at all necessary, was a complement to his own fighting style as it gave him multiple options in a fight. If he ever had the time or the opportunity, he would find and shut the man down. If he doesn't, he definitely won't be able to buy more Dust.

"Back to you, Lisa."

The scene within the holographic projection then changed to an image of a news reporter, Lisa Lavender.

"Thank you, Cyril. In other news," the image in the background changed, showing a picture of a group of Faunus. "This Saturday's Faunus Civil Right's protest turned dark when members of the White Fang disrupted the ceremony."

'Tch.' He scowled at the subject of the news. 'Animals.' He didn't like the Faunus. He had always found their kind to be weak. If not in body, then in spirit. Why else would they congregate into a pack like the animals they are?

"The once peaceful organization has now disrupted -"

The image began to fade and soon - a projection of a blond woman with green eyes hidden away behind a pair of glasses took its place. She wore a long white blouse that, for some explicable reason that he could not come up with, reveals part of her chest. The lower half of the outfit was a short black business-like skirt with black stockings, ending with black boots. The entire outfit was finished with a tattered purple cape that covered a bit more than just her back.

The projection of the woman began to speak.

"Hello and welcome to Beacon. My name is Glynda Goodwitch. You are among a privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy. Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace. And as future Huntsman and Huntresses, you have a duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now, it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world."

The image of the tall woman then faded along with the projection, leaving only the view of the city in his sight.

Suddenly, he felt his scroll vibrate. He took it out of his right pocket and found that he once again had received an email from Ozpin once again.

'Huh, strange.'

He opened it and found only a message consisting of only a single line.

 _Vanitas. Come see me immediately after you get off the ship._

Attached to the message was a document detailing directions of how to get to the man's office after disembarking from the ship.

'Weird.' He had expected a little more than just one line of text. 'Oh, well.'

After memorizing the directions to the Headmaster's office, Vanitas continued on and walked to his assigned cabin, planning to wait out the rest of the ride in solitude. Along the way, a tall blond guy who looked just about ready to throw up ran past him. At that, he couldn't help but give a look of disgust at the sight.

'Absolutely disgusting.'

As he continued to move, he unknowingly walked past two girls, one with dark red hair and another with long yellow hair.

One of whom took notice of him.

* * *

"...I really hope that Vanitas is not actually coming to Beacon Academy..." Ruby muttered somewhat quietly. She was a nervous wreck at the moment. While wandering the airship that was currently heading to Beacon Academy, from the corner of her eyes, she thought she saw a black spiky haired boy. The brief image reminded her of Vanitas, a boy she did not particularly find easy to be around, and caused her to turn around and look.

'What am I doing?' she thought to herself. 'There's no way he could be here.' Ruby thought. Despite this, she began feeling anxious. The thought of Vanitas caused a feeling of dread to well up from inside of her.

'Oh, god, I really hope he's not here.'

Despite having a less than stellar opinion of the black haired boy, it wasn't like she hated him. However, she did not like being around him. Vanitas is...abrasive...and really, really hard to interact with. She was also scared of him too. The angry glares he gave out every so often were so intimidating!

Ever since they met each other for the first time in sparring class back at Signal, he had always shown disdain towards her. Well, actually...now that she thought about it, it wasn't just her that got that sort of treatment from him. From what she saw and heard about him, he had acted just as cold and mean towards everyone else, so maybe that was just how he was. Though now that she's thought of it, it still wasn't a comforting thought at all.

The voice of her older sister suddenly rang out, interrupting her thoughts.

"What's the problem, little sis?" Her sister, Yang, asked.

She wasn't sure if she should tell her. Despite the thought of Vanitas being at the school as her struck her as somewhat troubling, it seemed somewhat minor.

"Uh..."

"Come on, sis. You can tell me what's up." Yang said in a comforting tone.

Encouraged by this, Ruby told Yang what was troubling her.

"Um...it's Vanitas."

"Oh." Yang said in understanding. During her first year and last year at Signal Academy, she had told her older sister about her encounters with the boy. She'd told her about their first encounter at the Vale Harbor, she'd told her about their first actual meeting with each other at her first sparring class, and she had also told her about the various times the boy had wronged her in one way or another.

"Yeah..."

The blond girl, nodded, showing that she sympathized with her plight.

"Well, don't worry about that guy." The tall blond began to comfort her. "After all, you're heading to Beacon Academy and he's all the way back at Signal. So just kick back, relax, and forget about him!"

"Well..." Ruby rubbed the back of her head with her right hand. "That's the thing. I can't. I think...I think I just saw him wandering the ship."

"What?" Yang said in confusion. "Really?"

Ruby nodded.

"No way that's possible, Ruby. After all, like I said, he should be back at Signal. And besides, if he was coming, then Ozpin would've told you about another kid coming to Beacon, right?"

"Yeah," That was true. If Vanitas, like her, was coming to Beacon Academy, then Ozpin would've told her about it. Still, she couldn't shake off the feeling that it wasn't the case. "But...what if he is?" she asked.

"If he is coming, then just tell me if he tries to start anything." Yang flexed her right arm, showing off her strength. "If he tries to mess with you, then just leave it to me. I'll make him regret it!"

Ruby blinked. Then she let out a small giggle.

"Heh. Okay." She smiled. Yang always knew what to say. After a brief moment of silence, she spoke once more.

"Hey, sis?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

It didn't matter where, when, or why. If she was ever in any sort of distress, her older sister will always be there for her.

* * *

 _SOME TIME LATER_

* * *

Ozpin, in his office just underneath the Beacon Tower, was sipping from his mug of coffee while waiting for Vanitas. Glynda was in the room as well.

Earlier he had sent a message to Vanitas while the young boy was onboard the ship heading to the academy, asking him to come to his office immediately. The reason for this was because he had wanted to ask a few questions regarding the boy's exceptional growth. In just one year, the strong yet unskilled boy that he met in the orphanage had became a distinctive force of nature capable of holding his own against Qrow. Granted the man had been holding himself back immensely at the time, but the point still stands.

Vanitas, like the girl who he had given permission to attend Beacon to the other day, holds great talent and skill.

Yet he was curious. How did he get so strong within just a single year? In Ruby's case, it was because her uncle, Qrow, had trained her. But with Vanitas, it just seem to have come out of nowhere.

Was the boy trained by someone in particular? Was the boy taking some sort of performance enhancing drug? Some sort of mystical magic thought of only in medieval fantasies? Or perhaps, it was just the result of pure, unadulterated combination of talent and intense training.

While pondering on the possibilites, he felt a small tremor and heard a distant yet distinctive sound of an explosion from behind him. He swiveled his chair around to the window behind him and looked out from his tower. When he did, he saw a small crater in the middle of the courtyard.

At first he thought it might have been an attack. However, the lack of additional explosions coupled with the fact that the damage seem to be relatively minor convinced him otherwise.

'It was probably an accident.' Ozpin thought.

"Glynda," he said. "Remind me to get someone to fix that."

The woman nodded her head.

"Very well."

After that, nothing happened for at least a couple or so minutes.

Sooner or later, the man heard a ding from one of the elevators that led directly into his own office and with it, the black haired boy that he had called up to his office arrived.

"Welcome, young man," he said to the golden eyed boy. "I take it you did not find it difficult to find my office?"

"Nope." Vanitas responded.

The boy had a frown on his face. Strange. Did he do something to irritate the boy already? Or perhaps the boy happened to have a permanent scowl on his face. Considering the young man's ill attitude the last time he had saw him, the latter seem to be more likely.

"Is that...the boy?" he heard Glynda quietly say. It seems after ten years, she still remembered him. Then again, it was probably the eyes. Those golden yellow orbs of his tend to be very distinctive.

Vanitas spoke to Ozpin.

"So old man, why did you call me here?" the boy asked in a rude fashion.

"Watch your tongue, young man!" Glynda, his unofficial secretary, shouted sternly at the boy. She began to reprimand him for his rudeness. "You are in the presence of-!"

"Glynda..." he cut her off before she could say anymore to the boy. The blond woman noticed his tone and the implications behind it.

"What? But, Headmaster-!"

"Yes, I know. The boy is exceedingly rude, but I rather prefer him to speak his mind." At this, Glynda fell silent. Ozpin then turned his head to Vanitas and spoke to him.

"To your question, young man, I had simply wanted to welcome you to Beacon personally. That, and I wanted to talk to you. Please, take a seat." He gestured towards the chair that was in front of his desk. The boy took the seat and sat on it.

"Hmph. Well, I'm here now. So, what do you want to talk about?"

He smiled.

"Many things, Vanitas. However, since I have to do an orientation soon, we'll have to keep this short. Before we begin, do you have any questions?"

"Just one." The boy turned his head ever so slightly at Glynda. "Does she really need to be here?"

A small look of mild offense appeared on Glynda's face. She began to open her mouth, presumably to reprimand him, only to close it. Instead, she directed a very disapproving stare at Vanitas instead. At this, he became slightly amused.

'I can tell she's going to have her hands full with him.'

He returned his attention to Vanitas and instead of simply answering to the boy, he asked a question in response to his question.

"Why do you ask? Is her presence disturbing you in some manner?"

"I don't like her," the ridiculously rude boy said rather bluntly. "She seems way too uptight." From the corner of his eyes, he swore that one of Glynda's eyes was twitching from what he could only assume was some sort of intense disapproval.

"Now, now, Glynda, calm down." He said soothingly. "As to your question, young man, I would much rather prefer to have her here."

The golden eyed boy rolled his eyes.

"Alright, fine." he said. "So what are we talking about?" The boy made himself extremely comfortable and placed his foot on his desk. This...displeased him somewhat. Not as displeasing as having someone insult his coffee, but it was a close second.

"Young man, I ask that you remove your foot from my desk immediately." The sudden stern tone that he used seemed to have thrown the young boy in front of him off guard given the way that he had imminently removed his feet from the top of his desk. "Thank you." He continued to speak as if nothing happened. "As I've said, I'm keeping this brief. So let's just get to the meat of the subject. Tell me, Vanitas, how did you get so strong in such a short time?"

"Huh, why do you ask?"

"Just curious."

The boy's eyes narrowed. The man assumed that it was due to annoyance.

"Is this an interrogation?" Vanitas asked.

"Oh, no. I'm just genuinely curious. I mean, after all, it isn't everyday a fifteen year old boy gains admittance to a Huntsman Academy. Even more so when the academy in question normally accepts people aged seventeen or more. Granted, I was the one who made it possible in the first place, but only because I recognized your potential. Still that alone does not answer the question. How did you get so skilled in just a short period of time?"

"Hmph. Shouldn't it be obvious?" The boy said. Instead of responding with words, Ozpin simply chose to stare at the boy in the eye, signifying that he wanted a proper answer. At this, the boy closed his eyes and crossed his arms, as if placing himself in thought. After a brief moment or two, the boy began to speak once more. "Ozpin. Remember when we first met? When I was thirteen years old?"

Technically, the first meeting was when the boy was roughly four years old, but the boy didn't need to know that.

He nodded. The boy continued.

"You told me, did you not? You told me that I was strong and that I had talent. All that I was lacking was training. So, that's what I did. Train. I trained myself to use Aura all by myself. I trained myself with various fighting styles and weaponry." The boy looked him in the eye. "Day in, day out, I trained myself, in both mind and body, to be the very best that I could be at the given moment. That's how I got so skilled."

'I am impressed.' Ozpin thought. He really was. The level of dedication that the boy had just shown him was rare indeed. But there was one thing that worried him. It was something that was implied, no matter how small it may be.

"Tell me, Vanitas, do you have any friends?" He asked inquisitively.

"What does that have to do with anything?" The boy said instantaneously. The look on the boy's face, one of annoyance was plastered on it. Yet at the same time, there was a bit of anger attached to it. It was likely that the boy was touchy about the subject.

"It's nothing." He didn't have much time, so he decided to let it drop for now. He looked at clock that was on his desk. "Oh, would you look at the time." At that, the boy asked a minor question.

"Is that all for now?" The boy said, returning to his rude tone of voice.

"Yes, that will be all. I'll be seeing you and the other students off tomorrow at the School Initiation."

"Yeah, whatever." With that, Vanitas made his way to exit.

When Vanitas was gone, having departed to the orientation that will be taking place at a later time, Glynda, with a inquisitive look on her face, asked him a question.

"That boy...is he?" The unspoken words, he assumed, were 'Is he that boy from ten years ago?'

'I supposed I should explain,' he thought.

"Yes, Glynda. That is indeed the boy we've found in that forest ten years ago."

"How," she asked with some level of disbelief. "Why?"

"I can't say now," he said, referring to the student orientation he will be giving soon. "Do not worry though. I intend to tell you soon after, okay?"

After giving a small frown, she nodded.

"Very well, Headmaster."

* * *

 _AFTER ORIENTATION  
_

* * *

After the surprisingly quick orientation given by Ozpin, Vanitas had a quick dinner from the mess hall and then went to the Academy's ballroom where the rest of the first years, like him, were to go to bed for the night.

Taking claim of one of the sleeping mats given by the school, Vanitas, after changing to more bed friendly clothing, immediately set off to the realm of sleep. He had a feeling that he was going to need as much energy as he could for tomorrow. And so, he was among the first to fall unconscious.

Unfortunately, however, that did not last very long.

There was several voices. All of them females. Two...no...three! Then another came in, making it four. Three of these voices were unfamiliar to him. One of them, however, sounded very familiar. He could not place his finger on it, but it was suspiciously familiar. At least three of them seem to be in a heated argument of some kind. He didn't care about that though.

Cause he was angry. In fact, he was livid with rage. It was the sort of rage one got when one's sleep was rudely interrupted.

Damn it! He was trying very hard to get some damn sleep! But apparently, some people are unable to realize that in order to function properly, people like him need at least seven to eight hours of sleep in order to function properly in the morning!

Despite that, he kept his eyes shut. Hoping very desperately that the people who could not keep their voices down would eventually get tired and shut up, he waited. He waited, and waited until it became apparent that these four people would not SHUT THE HELL UP!

"Whoever is talking, shut the hell up!" He lashed out angrily.

In a exaggerated, slightly comical yet smooth fashion, Vanitas immediately got up from his sleeping mat, grabbed his pillow that was provided to him by the school, and threw it forcefully in the general direction of the noise hoping that would get whoever was talking to shut up.

The pillow flew into the air. As it was making its way to its destination, one of the girls, a short girl with black-red hair turned around as a response to his words. Then the pillow he had threw smacked her right in the face. Then, after the pillow made it to its destination, it fell off the girl's face, revealing one of the four people (or was it three) that weren't being quiet.

At that point, both his and the girl's, whose face he had just smacked with a thrown pillow, eyes widen in varying level of disbelief.

* * *

'Oh, no/ Oh, crap,' were the words thought by both Ruby and Vanitas at the exact same time. The ballroom was completely silent after that.

* * *

 **I might make the word count of the Beacon Initiation chapter, like chapter 6, much longer. Approximately about 7-8k words. Probably more. Quick spoiler: though this is going to be very obvious given the clues beforehand. It's gonna be full of new scenes because of what happened during the first chapter.**

 **You guys won't see Organization XIII for a while. But when they do pop up again, expect some shit to happen to Vanitas and, by extension, the rest of the cast because of it.  
**

 **Commentary time:**

 **0) Unknowingly, Vanitas is projecting his hatred of Ventus onto Ruby. Poor Rubes.**

 **1) Though Vanitas was in the same hallway as Ruby and Yang, he didn't notice because he didn't expect one or the other because: a) he thought Ruby was still at Signal. b) He doesn't know who Yang is.  
**

 **2) Did I nail the shy, nervous side of Ruby? I sure hope so.**

 **3) I hope that Vanitas feels like a consistent jackass to all you readers. That should be the feel of him at this point of the story. He's a dynamic character though so he'll change as the story progress. If he starts feeling two-dimensional, or flat, as a character, let me know.  
**

 **4) I'm gonna have Peter, Oobleck, and Glynda remember Vanitas and the Remnant instead of having them somehow forget about it. Will probably have some sort of repercussion down the line.**

 **5) Ozpin has got something planned for Vanitas. It could be something simple. Could be something not as simple. But it will definitely be important.**

 **6) As I am sure you have noticed, there is either a lack of scenes from RWBY itself or major variations of it. As I've probably said before, I like to keep things relatively new. I mean, no need to rehash scenes that we've already seen, right? That being said, they still happen. I'm just not gonna show it.**

 **7) Vanitas's got some major attitude problem. I've shown some of this with the limited interaction he had with Glynda and Ozpin. You can infer more of his jackassery from Ruby.  
**

 **8) I would fucking love it if someone did a cover art for this story. Just a simple hand drawn or computer generated drawing of Vanitas and Ruby side to side or back to back. Headshots. No body shots. If worse come to worse, I could always draw it myself. But I'm a bad drawer, so it would take time for it to come out looking half decent. Time that could be spent working on this fic.  
**

 **9) First one to accurately guess what's gonna happen during the Beacon Initiation chapter(s) gets absolutely nothing but the satisfaction from accurately predicting what's gonna happen.**

 **Heads up - since Fallout 4 is out, my updates will probably slow down. Or not. It really depends on whether or not I feel lazy.  
**

 **Thanks for reading Empty in Remnant. Please leave a review, fav, or follow. I like seeing the numbers go up.**


	9. Chapter 9

Empty In Remnant

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, RWBY, or any other works associated with them.

 **I currently despise this site's image manager. Trying to use a new cover, but the god damn image manager system keeps reverting it to the last cover. It is annoying. If the image is up, then halle-fucking-lujah.** **The new cover, by the way, was drawn by Fluoricia. Despite some details not being how I wanted it to be, which is mostly my fault as I probably didn't describe Vanitas well enough, it is overall a really good piece of work. Good job!**

 **Eh, as soon as I can find it (or redraw it), I'll post it a link in my profile so you can see what I think Vanitas would wear if he was raised in the world of Remnant.**

 **Last chapter, Vanitas and Ruby meet each other once again! Like that doesn't spell disaster all over it. As for everyone else, I'll be sure to make Vanitas mistreat the hell out of them.**

 **As for those who may be worried that I'll just insert three OCs just to give Vanitas a team, don't worry. I won't. Instead, I'm just gonna follow KH's example and insert three characters from other games.**

 **What's gonna happen in the Emerald Forest? You just need to know WHAT Vanitas is in order to get a sense of what's gonna happen. *Insert evil laughter***

 **On another note- Can't wait til the obligatory Beacon Initiation chapter(s) is done. I have a lot planned out for Vanitas.**

Chapter 9: Obligatory Beacon Initiation Part 1

* * *

Hours before, Glynda was going about doing her usual thing as well as getting ready for the Initiation tomorrow when Ozpin had suddenly called her up to his office. In the Headmaster's office, her employer made it clear to her that he was expecting a visitor and that he wanted her to be here for it.

When she asked why, the man merely smiled in a coy manner and told her to wait and see.

Eventually, ten to thirty minutes after the air ship containing the students, both old and new, arrived, the guest arrived with a ding from the elevator that led directly to his office. When the door opened, she saw a red and black clad boy with black spiky hair, a scowl, and other looks that tend to plague people of ill temperament. From appearance alone, she quickly determined that the boy was the type to engage in hoodlum activities. It was only when she looked at the boy's golden eyes did she realized who the boy was.

To say that she was surprised would have been putting it short. No, in truth, she was completely flabbergasted. She was so dumbfounded by this that she temporarily lost her composure and let loose a few, thankfully quiet, words.

"Is that...the boy?" She had said at the time.

To see the boy that she and her colleagues have recovered from the Emerald Forest more than a decade ago right in front of her was...very surprising to say the least. Despite worrying of what will become of the boy and his future at the time, after Ozpin had sent the boy to the local orphanage, she had, in all honesty, never expected to see him again. After all, the world was big and many things could have happened that would have prevented the boy from ever meeting her and her colleagues. Though seeing the boy now with her own two eyes made her think that, perhaps, the world was smaller than she thought it was.

After a moment or two of inconspicuously gawking at the boy in front of her, she realized her current state and quickly regained her composure.

Soon after Ozpin spoke, the boy responded in turn, calling the Headmaster an old man in the process. Hearing that made her, out of loyalty to the man and because of the disciplinarian inside of her, automatically react the way a disciplinarian would. She began to reprimand the boy only to interrupted by Ozpin.

After that, she could only watch on as both Ozpin and the boy talked with each other. While they were talking, she had learned a few things. One- the boy went by the name of Vanitas. Two- the boy only went by Vanitas, indicating that the boy, despite being sent to an orphanage for adoption, had a lack of parental figures. And lastly, the boy was even more ruder than she had first thought as he directed a not so subtle dislike and insult towards her way.

She was offended, to say the least.

Their limited time soon came to an end as the orientation for the new students neared. As a result, the boy left. When he did, she took this opportunity to have a quick word with Ozpin. Though she was sure that was the boy, there was still a faint sense of doubt within her. So, to clear any remaining doubts, she asked him if that was truly the case.

He confirmed that it was indeed.

At this, there were only two questions in her head. How and Why? However, due to the impending orientation that will commence soon, Ozpin told her that they will be talking about this later. She could only accept.

So she waited.

When the orientation, which went by almost criminally fast, was finished, both she and Ozpin went straight back to his office to speak about the boy. As per Ozpin's words, he began to explain what he could to her.

"It all began two years ago when I decided to make a visit to the Orphanage where I had placed Vanitas in." He started. "After speaking with the staff, I had learned that the boy was not adopted. From what I learned, it was mainly due to Vanitas having an extremely disagreeable personality. The boy was, and still is, sarcastic, rude, and lacked respect for any person except himself. Furthermore, the boy had a tendency to go missing during the afternoon hours only to show up in the night time with a few scratch and bruises. It was then I decided to take action. The very next day, I followed the young man to see what he was up to. What I found was something that was...surprising, to say the least. Tell me, what do you know of the UFC?"

"Sir, what does that have to do with this topic?" She questioned.

"Answer the question."

Glynda let out a small sigh before answering.

"It was a highly illegal underground fighting circuit, hence the name, that pitted minors against minors and sometimes even against adults." She answered. "It wasn't until two years ago that the UFC was forcibly disbanded by the local authorities, who had only managed to locate it thanks to an anonymous tip." It was that moment Glynda realized where Ozpin was going with this. Eyes wide, she asked Ozpin a question. "Did you, no, were you the one who tipped them off?"

Ozpin nodded.

"Then...that means-!"

"Yes." the older man confirmed. "Vanitas was a part of the UFC as one of its fighters. Believe me, I too, was surprised. However, that didn't mattered because once I knew what he was up to, I knew what to do. After confirming that Vanitas was in the UFC with my own eyes, I waited for him back in the Orphanage where I had confronted the boy in person. I spoke with the boy and, after speaking with him, 'persuaded' him to give up his current way of life and to become a Huntsman instead. That is why he is here."

"But, why so early?" Glynda said, in reference to Vanitas's age of fifteen.

"Two reasons. The first is the same reason why I invited the young Miss Rose to Beacon. The young man is exceptionally skilled for his age." The man before her took out his scroll from his pocket. He began tapping the scroll with his fingers. "The second reason..." He tapped on it one last time. "-is this." The notification sound from her own scroll rang out. She quickly took it out and saw that Ozpin had sent a video. It was titled 'Vanitas's Test.'

"What is this?" She asked in relative confusion. She needed the context.

"It is Vanitas's test, the one that would decide whether or not he would be able to skip the second year of Signal Academy. I won't go on about that much, but I do encourage you to watch it on your own time. It will reveal the reason why I am so interested in the boy."

"You could just tell me." She said.

"Ah, but to tell is one thing." He said. "To witness it is another matter altogether. I believe that watching that will be much more illuminating than just telling you. Now, I do believe that it is time for both of us to turn in. After all we have a big day tomorrow."

* * *

 **EMPTY IN REMNANT**

* * *

Just a bit before it would be considered late in the morning, Vanitas was in the locker room where he and everyone else that was participating in the Beacon Initiation were preparing themselves. Vanitas, however, having been the first to arrive, had already completed preparations and equipment inspection.

He had two pouches. The one that would be on his left contained ten small vials of Dust. Every two was a specific element. They were green, red, blue, yellow, and brown. They each represented wind, fire, ice, lightning, and earth respectively. The one that would be on his right contained various items such as food, rations, as well as things one might expect to have when traversing a forest.

As for his weapon, Void Gear, it was perfectly fine and ready for combat.

By the time he finished inspection, the room was filled with other people. So, with his back to his locker, Vanitas merely stood around and waited for the call that signified that it was time to go to the Beacon Cliffs. While he waited, however, he decided to take a look at everyone else and see what they're like.

He saw Ruby and a older girl with long blonde hair in the room. Briefly, he wondered how the girl had managed to get into the academy. He contemplated for a moment on the various possibilities that could have led her to come to same academy as him. Eventually, he came to realize that the most likely way for her to gain entrance was the same way that he got in. That is to say, it was likely because of Ozpin.

The next chance he got, he would hound the man.

As the smaller girl inevitably walked by, he couldn't help but glare at her menacingly. At this, she turned her head to the side in a vain attempt to ignore him. At this, the older girl looked at him with a glare that was meant to be intimidating. He met her glare head on and for a brief moment, both of them stared at each other with a burning intensity. Eventually, the buxom blonde had to break eye contact so that she could continue walking with Ruby. Before she did, with two fingers, she pointed at her eye before pointing at his.

Though he scoffed at this gesture, he also couldn't help but respect her for that. He didn't show it, but it was there. After all, not many would be audacious enough to challenge him like that.

Then there were others such as this obnoxiously loud and cheery girl dressed in pink and white and her much quieter friend who was wearing a strange green outfit. Like seriously. It looked like it came from another Kingdom. The girl was being excessively loud and spewing out words like how a minigun spews out bullets. As for her friend, who appeared to be taking it in stride, he didn't seem to be saying much. Perhaps, he's just the quiet, observant type.

He then looked around once more to see if there were anyone else. After a moment, he saw two girls and was mildly and possibly pleasantly surprised. One was a white long haired girl and was dressed in a fancy looking combat skirt that was primarily white. The second was another girl with long red hair and was wearing armor bronze colored armor. They appeared to be talking. About what - he didn't know.

He didn't know who the first girl was, who seemed like a manipulative stuck in the mud type of person, nor did he know what she talking about with the second girl. But that didn't matter. Because out of the two, he had interest in only one of them. The red headed girl with green eyes - Pyrrha Nikos.

He knew of her. In fact, almost everyone who aspired to become a Huntsman or Huntress did. The older girl is a accomplished fighter, being skilled enough to win the Mistral Tournament four years in a row. In her battles, it is said that she's never been touched in combat, giving her the reputation of being a untouchable warrior. If she's in Beacon, then he knew what he would do the chance he gets.

He would challenge the girl and see if he could put an end to that streak of hers.

Then suddenly, while he was observing the two talk about who-knows-what, a tall blonde guy with blue eyes came in and interrupted the two. Judging from his body language, he immediately began flirting with the white haired girl. This caused Vanitas to scoff because he could tell that despite the show of confidence the boy was putting on, it was all just false bravado. Not too soon after that, the white girl said something to the red head, prompting Pyrrha to throw her javelin at the tall blonde, pinning him to one of the lockers.

At that point, the announcement system came on.

"Would all first year students please report to Beacon Cliffs for initiation. Again, all first years students please report to Beacon Cliffs immediately."

With that, Vanitas moved out to the locker and headed straight to Beacon cliffs.

* * *

Ozpin looked on as students were lining up on or near their designated launching pads, which would launch each student into the forest below all of them. For those who have already lined up, they were waiting in intense anticipation. When the very last student made it to their designated areas, he was just about ready to began to speak his obligatory words, which would serve to inform each students the purpose of this initiation. With his cup of coffee in his right hand and his not-secretary by his side, he began to speak.

"For years, you have trained to become warriors." He said. "And today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest."

After that, Glynda continued for him. Meanwhile, he kept an eye on the students. More specifically, he kept an eye on two of the youngest students that Beacon has ever received.

"Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of teams." Ozpin saw that the boy, Vanitas, seemed to have raised an eyebrow at this. Glynda continued to speak. "Well, allow us to put an end to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given team mates. Today." At that, he saw that both Vanitas and Ruby reacted negatively to that. The girl made a slight audible complaint while the boy narrowed his eyes.

He picked up where Glynda left off.

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here in Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone whom you can work well. That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the rest next four years."

The moment he said that, the red and black haired girl audibly said 'what' in what he presumed was some sort of combination of both despair and surprise. Meanwhile, the golden eyed, spiky haired boy was looking downward. There was sound coming from him, indicating that he was speaking, but the lack of intelligible words indicated that he was mumbling. Knowing the boy, it was probably complaints.

"After you've partnered up," he continued. "Make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path or you will die."

At this, some of the students looked nervous and were making sounds that indicated this feeling. Vanitas, along with a few other aggressive looking students, were looking pumped up instead.

"You will be monitored and graded for the duration of your initiation. But our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?"

The boy with blonde hair and blue eyes raised his hand.

"Um, yeah, sir?" he said.

He quickly ignored this.

"Good," the older man said. "Now take your positions."

Every student began to take their positions, posturing themselves for the moment of launch. All except the boy who tried to ask him a question and, for some reason, was still raising his hand.

"Um...sir?" the boy said nervously. "I've got, um, a question."

'Oh, bother.' the man thought. 'Might as well humor him.'

"So...this landing strategy...what is it? Like, dropping us off or something?" As the boy spoke, one by one, students were being launched into the air. Their destination being the forest below them.

"No," in the interest of time, he decided to be blunt. "You will be falling. "

"I...see. So...like, did you hand out parachutes for us?" At that, the golden eyed boy right next to blonde looked at the taller boy like he was an idiot for saying that.

"No. You will be using your own landing strategy."

"Uh-huh. So, what exactly is a landing strateg-!" the boy was unable to finish his question as he was swiftly and suddenly launched into the air. He flew into the air with the same amount of grace as a first time dancer performing an intricate dance. That is to say, none at all. The boy flew in the air, rotating backwards and flailing his arms.

A half second before the last student, Vanitas, was launched, the spiky haired boy utter a single word.

"Idiot."

The boy then launched into the forest, leaving both him and Glynda alone. At this, Ozpin took a sip of coffee from his mug.

* * *

In the air, the propelled Vanitas was flying in the air. While flying, the boy found that with the way that he was propelled in the air, he would soon land in a small clearing in the forest. In preparation for the landing, he quickly took out a small vial full of green Dust and inserted it into the teeth of his weapon. He flipped his weapon horizontally and held the trigger, prepping the Dust inside the top half of his weapon. When he finished the preparation, he began to fall downward. He fell, and fell, and fell. Eventually, at the most opportune moment, the red and black clothed boy swung his weapon at the direction of the impending clearing, letting loose a crescent wave of Aura in the process.

Instead of the usual black color that usually comes when he let loose a wave of Aura energy, it was green due to the effects of the Dust that was placed inside his weapon. Not only that, but it has also changed the effects of the wave as well.

The green wave of Aura energy flew at the ground at a faster pace than Vanitas. Soon, it made impact with the ground. Usually, with just his Aura, the wave of energy would have just made impact with the ground, create some destruction, and then dissipate simultaneously. However, due to the effects of the green Dust, which was imbued with the power of wind, the crescent wave of energy created a different result entirely. Instead, the green colored crescent wave created an enormous gust that blew in all direction. However, due to the fact that it was in a clearing, with trees surrounding it, much of the wind was forced to go up.

Thanks to the powerful wind blowing upwards and his Aura, which would have mitigated any possible damage as a result of doing this, his descent was slowed. By the time the gust created by the green crescent Aura was gone, the boy was merely a foot or so in the air above, making the rest of the landing as easy as counting to three.

The boy landed on the grassland, near the trees.

"Hmph." He was disappointed. No, not about the landing. It was about as good as it can be. He held his weapon, Void Gear, out in front of him and looked at it. No, he was just disappointed that he had used up one of his Dust vials so early. Granted, it was either that or end up as a splat on the ground somewhere in the forest, but he couldn't help but a feel a slight disappointment. After all, it could've been used for a fight. Instead, it was used for something mundane like a 'landing strategy.'

"Eh." Vanitas quickly pushed away his disappointment. After all, it wasn't the end of the world.

Now that he was on the ground, the golden eyed boy decided to take the moment to think. He thought about the words Ozpin had given. He recalled the part that stood out to him the most, the one about partners and team mates. At this, the boy let out a small, rumbling growl.

"Grr..."

He didn't want to be partners with anyone nor did he want team mates. It's not necessarily because he's horrible with working with other people. He could work others just enough to get something done, but only barely. He just felt as though he worked best when he worked alone rather than in a group. It was just that he didn't like other people in general. So when Ozpin announced that everyone would be having partners and a team, it didn't really strike a positive chord with him. Still, since he's in this situation, he might as well make the best of it.

'Ah, well,' he thought. 'If I'm gonna have a partner regardless, I might as well try to find someone strong. Like that Nikos girl.' At that, the boy moved. From his current position, the boy went straight forward, heading deeper into the forest. As he approached the thickets of trees and bushes and other types of thick vegetation, Vanitas heard something moved within it.

"!" He quickly jumped backwards, creating space, and immediately got into his battle stance. He lowered his body so that it was a bit closer to the ground. With his right arm, he raised his weapon, Void Gear, above shoulder height, extended his left arm and hand outward with his palms facing downward. His left leg was placed just a bit forward from his body while his right was placed back to the side in a horizontal position.

'Is it the Grimm?' he asked himself in his head. He was really hoping that it was. The only opponents he had had so far were human opponents. It would be his first fight with the creatures and he really wanted to see how tough the Grimm really were. 'Or...is it someone else?' If it was another person, then despite not liking it, he really hoped that it was someone strong. After a moment or two, he shouted into the forest to get whatever was near him to show itself.

"Show yourself!" He shouted. After he said that, the sounds of movements got more frequent. As it did, it also got louder, indicating that the originator of the noise is getting closer. After a good five to ten seconds, a figure, a tanned person, emerged from the thicket of trees and instantly made eye contact with him. It was a boy, five or so feet taller than him, with shoulder length blond hair, blue eyes and with a stupid happy go lucky look on his face. He wore a jacket with a yellow back and pale dark green front. He wore two gloves. The one on his left is a black with a green cuff and a red elbow length sleeve. The one of his right is plain black. The boy wore black shorts with yellow boots.

Upon seeing that it wasn't a creature of Grimm, Vanitas got out of his stance. He stood straight up and held his weapon to the side.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"My name's Shuyin." The boy, now known as Shuyin, said. Momentarily, the boy rubbed the back of his head with his right hand before continuing. "Yours?"

"It's Vanitas."

The older boy instantly began acting friendly towards him.

"Looks like we're partners now." He extended his hand towards Vanitas, gesturing for a handshake.

"Looks like it." Vanitas said without much interest. He decided to leave the boy hanging. After a few moments, Shuyin retracted his hand. "So, are you any good in a fight?" Vanitas asked.

"Oh yeah, totally." The light blonde boy said. He gestured to his equipment. On his back is a buckler, which he took with his left hand to show Vanitas before placing it back on his back. To his side is a sword with a black hilt and a light blue blade. He tossed in the air, causing the light blue blade to spin multiple times, before catching it on its way down, presumably as a way to show off his dexterity. "I'm good in a fight if that's what you're asking." He placed his sword back to his side.

"Hmph, we'll see."

Due to Vanitas's lack of social ability, the conversation just kinda died there. After a few moments, Shuyin, after looking at his weapon in a not so subtle way, spoke.

"So, what's with your weapon?" Shuyin asked.

"What about it?"

"It's just that, I'd never seen a blade that looked like that." The boy said, possibly in reference to the Key-Shaped nature of the weapon.

Despite not knowing the boy much, he decided to tell the blonde boy a bit about his weapon. It was something to talk about, at least. Vanitas held his weapon, Void Gear, horizontally in front of him.

"It's not really much of a blade," he admitted. "It's more of a blunt object with a vague shape of a sword so it's main purpose is for breaking rather than slashing." He then held his weapon vertically, then constantly flipped it, showing off the design of the weapon. "As for its shape...I don't really know, but...when the design came to me, I'd felt an extreme urge to implement it into the design." Vanitas, feeling as though as he was done talking, left it at time.

"Uh, huh...cool!" The boy said. Vanitas frowned. He knew, or at least thought, that boy didn't actually think it was cool. "Oh, before I forget, I need to ask. Did you happened to see a guy with black hair, blue eyes, and dressed completely in black?" Vanitas shook his head. "No? How about a girl with long, kinda curly pale blond hair in red and white clothing?" Before the golden eyed boy answered that question, he asked Shuyin a question first.

"Why are you asking?" Vanitas asked.

"They're my friends." Shuyin said. "We came to Beacon together. So, have you seen them?"

Vanitas shook his head.

"Aw," the older boy said in disappointment. He then shrugged his shoulders. "Ah well. Can't be helped." He then looked at Vanitas. "Hey, come on. Since you're my partner now, you gotta help me find my friends." He then turned around and began running deep into the forest.

"Hey, wait!" Vanitas shouted. Unfortunately, the boy seem to not have heard him at all. Shuyin continued walking onward into the forest. At this, Vanitas's eyes narrowed in anger. 'Ugh, just my luck. I get stuck with someone that goes at his own pace.' Because of the fact that Shuyin made eye contact with him, the older boy is now his partner. Due to his sense of obligation, Vanitas began to follow the boy lest he get left behind.

'Once I get catch up with him, I'm gonna give that guy a piece of my mind.'

Still, that didn't mean that he had to like it.

* * *

Vanitas was running towards the speeding Shuyin, who was still running around. Not only that, the boy was shouting names into the forest in a blind attempt to find his friends.

"Noct! Terra!" The older boy shouted. He kept shouting it repeatedly.

Eventually, when he was close enough to be sure that he would heard by the light blonde boy, he shouted at Shuyin.

"Hold it right there!" he shouted at Shuyin. The light blonde, who was ahead of Vanitas, stopped. Then he turned to Vanitas, who had stopped once he got close enough to speak properly.

"Huh? What's wrong, Vanitas?" Shuyin said, as if he had no idea what was wrong at all.

Now that the boy had stopped, Vanitas began to chew the boy out.

"What the heck is wrong with you?" he asked.

The older boy in front of him looked surprised when he said this.

"Wha-"

He interrupted him before the light blonde boy could say more.

"I mean, come on. You can't just go ahead on your own like that. And stop yelling, man."

"But I'm looking for my friends."

Vanitas frowned.

"That's all well and good," he said, despite him not really meaning it. Then, Vanitas continued to speak, this time in a aggressive tone of voice. "But think about it for just a moment, won't you?" He placed a finger from his left hand on to the left side of his head as a gesture. "If you keep yelling like that, you're definitely gonna attract Grimm to us." Not that it was a bad thing since he wanted to fight one, but he wanted to fight the Grimm on his own terms, not because some idiot decided to make himself known to the entire forest. "And plus, we're in a damn forest! The chances of you actually finding your friends while wandering the woods is nigh zero!"

"I found you while wandering, didn't I?" the boy responded.

"That was just chance and you know it."

The boy looked like he wanted to say something in response to that. However, after a moment of two, the boy seemed to have realized the truth of his logic.

"Then...what do you suggest we do?"

Once the older boy had asked that question, it was then that Vanitas cooled down. In response to the boy's question, he answered.

"I'll tell you what we're gonna do. Instead of wandering the forest like headless chickens, we're gonna head straight to the abandoned temple, where all the relics are."

Shuyin quickly caught on to his train of thought.

"Ah. So you mean..."

"Yes. Since everyone's mission is to return with a relic, all we have to do is go to the abandoned temple. Then, once we get there, we can wait for your friends and snag a relic at the same time. Got it?"

Shuyin nodded.

"Good," Vanitas said. "Now that we have a plan, let's move." He began to move only to hear Shuyin call out for him.

"Um, wait a sec." Shuyin said. "Do you know where the temple is?"

Vanitas shook his head.

"Nope. No idea. But we'll find it eventually. After all, an abandoned temple sounds like it could be huge, so it shouldn't be hard to miss." Well, he hoped. He then began to walk, moving in the same direction that Shuyin was moving towards before he had stopped him to talk. After a few steps, he looked back and looked at the boy with fair blonde hair. "Come on," he said. "Move it."

At that, the conversation was over. The two boys then began moving in the forest. The two walked in silence.

* * *

"Hmm..." Ozpin audibly hummed out loud. "Strange." He was looking at his scroll which had access to all the cameras within the Emerald Forest. Due to an incident, the one where he and his allies had found Vanitas, that had taken place ten or so years ago, the academy had taken the time to install cameras in every place imaginable to ensure that they would be able to have eyes in the Emerald Forest at all times. This means that Ozpin and, by extension, Glynda can see everything that was going on in the forest.

However, there was something strange afoot. As he switched from various different cameras, he had noticed a pattern. One that may potentially be malignant in nature.

From what he seen so far, the Grimm appeared to be acting strangely. At first they were moving. That much was a given due to the students that he had just dropped into the forest as their presence was enough to stir the creatures of darkness into action. However, that was when the normal ended and the unusual began. From the start of the initiation, the Grimm have been exhibiting strange behavior. The creatures of Grimm, known for their aggressiveness, have been passing up the students, ignoring them entirely unless provoked into fighting.

For example: The group of Ursa, or Ursai, that Miss Yang Xiao Long and her obviously Faunus companion had encountered early on had at first acted normally. Upon noticing her, they attacked. However, not too soon after that, the group of bear-like Grimm had suddenly ceased their attacks. They all then stood on their hind legs and looked to the sky. Then, those that were not dead quickly moved on, leaving behind a dumbfounded blonde and her partner.

That wasn't the only strange case. The Beowolves that Miss Weiss Schnee and Miss Ruby Rose had encountered bore symptoms of this as well. In fact, all the Grimm in the forest appeared to be doing this. And they were all moving in the same direction as well. Due to the strange behavior being exhibited by the Grimm, he began to wonder what was happening.

From what he gathered and from what knowledge of the Grimm he has, he quickly formed a theory on what was happening. The Grimm were attracted to negative emotions. It is how they detect both Humankind and Faunus-kind. Thus, it can be reasoned that someone, as it has to be a person, within the forest is attracting their attention. Someone with immense negative emotions. As this didn't happened until today, it would have to be someone that had very just recently made it into the forest.

Going by that line of that, it would have to be one of the students that he had launched into the forest.

'This is eerily similar to that event a decade ago.' Ozpin thought.

As soon as he thought that, a realization shaped as a hand slapped Ozpin in the forehead. Eyes wide, he quickly switched cameras in an attempt to locate what is likely the source of this problem. Eventually, he found a camera which currently had eyes on a boy with spiky black hair and golden eyes.

* * *

After a while of walking straight, a noise from the side suddenly caught their attention.

 **ROAR**

It was the sound of a roar. Given that the Emerald Forest was supposedly filled to the brim with the creatures of Grimm, there can only be one possible suspect: A Grimm had made that noise.

Surprised, both Vanitas and Shuyin turned their heads to find the source of noise. Once they did, they saw not just one Grimm, but a large pack of them, numbering up to ten.

The type of Grimm before them were the Beowolves. The Beowolves are a type of Grimm. Their general appearance are similar to the werewolves that are usually depicted in fantasy stories. The main differences between Beowolves and the Lycans depicted in the stories are the red eyes that they possess, the bone-like mask on their face, and the bone-link spikes that are present on each of the four limbs that they possess.

They appeared to have located the two, and were quickly approaching the pair.

"Uh, Vanitas. I think we got company." Though Shuyin's words indicated worry, the way he said lacked any sort of worry.

"Hmph." Vanitas took on his battle stance. "Get ready to fight." Shuyin took out his sword and buckler and prepared for battle. The Grimm, meanwhile, quickly surrounded the two. With no worry present in his voice, Vanitas spoke. "I'll take the half on the right. You'll take the other half."

"Sure, but how are we gonna split them up?" Vanitas told Shuyin his plan. "Sounds good to me!" Shuyin said with confidence.

Both of them jumped over the pack of Beowolves. After this, Vanitas moved himself to the far right while Shuyin positioned himself to the far left. In doing so, they both planned to lured half of each of the pack to themselves. However, instead of that happening, all of the Grimm began making their way to Vanitas instead. They moved towards Vanitas until Shuyin ran in with his weapon and began attacking. He weaved in and out of the pack, quickly slicing and dicing with his weapon. When he was done with his attack, he quickly ran back to his side of the field.

 **ROAR**

As a result of this preemptive attack on part of Shuyin, half of the Beowolves disengaged from Vanitas and began heading towards Shuyin instead.

Having lured half of the pack to himself, Vanitas was quickly surrounded by the Beowolves. The creatures, as per their aggressive nature, immediately went on the offensive.

One of the Beowolves came rushing in and took at swipe at him with its right claw. However, Vanitas easily avoided by performing a quick cartwheel to the right. On the Grimm's left side, he quickly retaliated, swinging his weapon with a overhead strike at the monster, aiming at the head. At the same time, he also performed a quick dash forward so that he was close enough to land the hit. The blow made contact with the Grimm, slamming it into the ground. Before he could apply the finishing blow to the Grimm that attacked him, another creature of Grimm charged at him at a fast pace from his right, as if it intended to run straight into him. Noticing this, he quickly turned around, moving just enough to avoid the charge. At the same time, he swung Void Gear at the creature's right arm. This blow broke the arm of the Beowulf's that charged at him causing it to fall on the previous Grimm that attacked him.

The three Beowolves that were still standing quickly approached the golden eyed boy. The third Beowolf took a swipe at the boy. Vanitas guarded against the attack, deflecting the swipe. The monster then went in for another swipe. Vanitas then pulled a reversal, a slide that allowed him to reach his opponent's backside, and then counterattacked the beast by striking its backside with his weapon. The power placed behind the attack broke the beast's back and the monster felled on the two Grimm on the ground as a result. The fourth and fifth of the Grimm, which were now positioned in front and behind him, ran at Vanitas, charging him from both sides. Vanitas simply rolled out of the way, to the left, causing both of the Beowolves to hit each other in the head with their own heads. The two Grimm promptly collapsed on the ground.

Before any of the Grimm could get up, Vanitas decided to go in for the kill.

Vanitas quickly moved backwards to make space for himself, then, when he figured he was at an optimal distance, he charged up his weapon with Aura. At the peak of its charge, he swung his weapon repeatedly at the Grimm in front of him. A crescent wave of Aura came out of his weapon each time he swung and they all flew straight at the Beowolves. The waves of energy quickly made its way to its destination and impacted the defenseless Grimm, killing them all in the process.

"Pathetic." He said. He then turned around to check up on Shuyin only to see him finish off the last of his Grimm as well. The boy had slashed at both the legs of the last Grimm, bringing it on its knees. Then, while the Grimm was down, the boy charged at the beast. With a horizontal slash, Shuyin removed the head of the Beowolf from its body.

After dispatching creatures of Grimm, the two boys regrouped.

"Man, that was easy!" Shuyin said in a cheery tone.

"Yeah, a little too easy." In contrast with Shuyin's upbeat tone of voice, Vanitas sounded disappointed in comparison. "To be honest, I was expecting a lot more from these creatures."

"Oh? What were you expecting?" Shuyin asked in a questioning tone of voice.

Vanitas gave a vague answer.

"A lot more than this." With an ever present frown on his face, Vanitas began moving the direction they were going before. Shuyin followed suit. However, not even ten steps, they both began hearing loud noises.

 **RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE**

It was the sound of multiple heavy footsteps. Due to sheer volume and intensity, both Vanitas and Shuyin realized that a hoard of Grimm was likely the cause. They both looked for the impending Grimm and soon, they found the approaching creatures of Grimm.

"Well, Vanitas. I don't think you have to worry about that." Shuyin said in a worried tone. Having spotted them first, both Vanitas and Shuyin hid themselves in a nearby brush to get a read on the situation.

Scores of Grimm were approaching. Beowolves, Ursai, and Boarbatusks, were coming in from all sides of the forest. For some reason, they looked as though they were looking for something or, knowing their nature, possibly looking for someone.

"Hmph." Vanitas wanted to fight more. So he raised his weapon in his right hand and prepared to fight once more. "This might actually be a fair fight."

"Nuh, uh!" Shuyin shouted quietly at Vanitas. In a panic, he began speak at mach speed. "No way, man. Look, I don't know what you're thinking but we are not fighting that hoard! I mean, I like fighting as much as the next guy, but come on!" With his gloved hand, he pointed at the Grimm. "Look at them! There are scores of them, man! Do you know how much a score is? It's twenty!" Before Shuyin could say more, Vanitas spoke.

"What are you, scared?" Vanitas said in a mocking tone.

"Of fighting? No. Of getting torn to shreds by scores of Grimm? Yes!"

"Oh, shut up." Vanitas let out a small, somewhat exasperated sigh. He thought about it for a moment before finally coming to a decision. He then lowered his weapon and placed it by his side. "Fine, we'll do it your way."

"Good! Then we're heading straight towards the temple! Now, on my go."

Both Vanitas and Shuyin readied themselves to make a break for it.

"Ready?" Shuyin said. Vanitas nodded.

"Go!" Both Vanitas and Shuyin ran at the same time. Both ran at equal speed. Having rushed out of the bush that they were hiding in, they've inevitably created noise that attracted the scores of Grimm's attention to them. Thus, noticing that both the golden eyed boy and the light blonde was running away from them, the collection of Grimm, as per their aggressive nature, began running after them.

Thus, both Vanitas and Shuyin ran with the entire Grimm population of the Emerald Forest at their heels.

* * *

 **I got over 10,000 views on my story, over a hundred followers and about one hundred reviews on my story! \\('v')/ That's three milestones down. If I can hit over a hundred on Favs, that'll be even better. But uh, only do that if you feel like this story deserves it. Now for some commentary.**

 **0) The first scene that was in Glynda's Pov? I probably should've put that in the last chapter, but the idea didn't occur to me at the time despite the set up. Oh well, it's there now. Plus, now you all get to see what she thinks of Vanitas, both before and after their first proper meeting.**

 **1) We get to see how Vanitas would likely view the characters of Remnant from just their appearance alone. Also, he knows Pyrrha. Not on a personal level, but on a 'Everyone knows who she is because she's on a cover of a cereal box' sort of level. And because of her reputation, there'll probably be a fight scene between the two.**

 **2) Vanitas is impressed by confidence and shows of aggression.**

 **3) For the first part of the Initiation, I'll be honest, I kinda despise it. Mostly because I've basically uplifted that from the show. Not much room or leeway for additional content in this specific scene. I've could've just ignored that one, but then the pacing would be off.**

 **4) If I keep including Ozpin, I might as well just add Ozpin to the featured character list along with Vanitas and Ruby.**

 **5) I'm trying to be realistic with the physics, but since this story is a crossover about a game which features world-traveling keyblade wielders and a show about teenagers fighting monsters and terrorists, I think that may be an exercise in futility. Gonna try it anyway and see where it goes.**

 **6) Huh, I should probably take this time to describe Vanitas's clothing now. Okay, so, Vanitas is wearing something similar to Sora's outfit from 3D. Still with me here? If yes, then good. So imagine that, but invert all the colors of each part of the outfit except the hoodie. And the belt. And the shorts. Make the shorts into pants, then give all parts except the white lines a black color. Then make the white lines red. And give him normal shoes. Make the belt red. Remove the sigil (the X) from the shirt and apply it to the jacket. Make the shirt all black. Remove the gloves and give him a single wrist band on his left hand. Just black. As for the parts on the jacket that looks like its grey or beige, make that black.**

 **7) Yep. I used Final Fantasy characters to fill up the slot. Since SE used alternate version of FF chars in KH, I decided to do the same.**

 **8) Grimm uses negative emotions as a way to find prey. Vanitas is like a giant beacon to them as a result. Also, Ozpin is one smart cookie.**

 **9) The rest of the FF characters that will appear soon are Noctis Lucis Caelum from Final Fantasy 15 and Terra Branford from Final Fantasy 6. Also check out the first letters of their first names. If you add that plus Vanitas's and Shuyin's and rearrange them in a certain order, you get 'VNTS' which can either read as Ventus or Vanitas.**

 **10) First of the fight scenes involving Grimm. I have to say, I like writing scenes involving people instead of just mindless creatures.**

 **This chapter as a whole is Vanitas heavy. I might try to make the next one centered around Ruby's POV. Maybe.** **I also feel like adding more details to the fight scene in Chapter one. Probably will at some point.**

 **Thanks for reading Empty in Remnant. Please leave a review, fav, or follow. I like seeing the numbers go up. Oh, and reading the reviews as well.**


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